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Today in the morning, the border check point "Kazbegi-Verkhni Lars" started its operation. Its Kazbegi section works under the legislation of Georgia, while the Verkhni Lars one - according to the Russian legislation.

The international organization "Reporters Without Borders" (RWB) believes, as stated in its special press release on the state of things with mass media in Sochi and in Krasnodar Territory as a whole, that the Sochi-based press had failed to give due attention to ecological consequences of the Olympic construction.

The health condition of Vadim Karastelyov, a human rights activist from Novorossisk and Alexei Dymovskiy's official representative, who was beaten on February 27, is now better; however, for about a week no investigatory actions with him will be possible. This was stated by Marina Dubrovina, Mr Karastelyov's advocate, who visited him in the Novorossisk city hospital.

Chechen authorities plan to open a school of hafizes - readers of the Koran, who know the sacred book of Moslems by heart - in Grozny.

The two athletes who represented Azerbaijan were highly unsuccessfully at the 21st Winter Olympic Games, which were recently closed in Vancouver.

The attack on the human rights activist Vadim Karastelyov, committed in a suburb of Novorossisk, was not occasional, but another example of pressure on independent civil activists, or an attempt to get square with them. This is the opinion of the International Historical-Educational, Charitable and Human Rights Society "Memorial".

Investigation of the cases of missing citizens of South Ossetia has been commissioned to two international experts - Bruce Richard Pegg (Australia) and Nicolas Cebir (France). This was reported to journalists in Tskhinvali by Thomas Hammarberg, Supreme Commissioner of the Council of Europe for Human Rights, who added that he will deal with the cases of prisoners.

A mourning ceremony dedicated to the 22nd anniversary of Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait took place today in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The united candidate from the opposition to the post of Tbilisi Mayor will be named, most probably, in early March, while now the nomination mechanism is defined. It was stated to journalists by Levan Gachechiladze, one of the leaders of Georgian opposition and the chairman of the public organization "Defend Georgia".

Today, unidentified persons attacked human rights activist Vadim Karastelyov, who represents the interests of former Major Alexei Dymovskiy. This was reported by Nikolai Ukraintsev, Vadim's advocate.

On February 26, Sochi gave grand welcome to bronze medallist of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver Alexei Voevoda. The athlete has declared that after this victory he decided to "round up" with bobsleigh.

The Supreme Court of Dagestan has sentenced Ahmed Abzhavatov, a resident of Makhachkala, to the maximal punishment - 25 years of imprisonment in a maximum security colony - for being a member of IAFs (illegal armed formations) and murdering two militiamen.

President of Karachai-Circassia Boris Ebzeev has decided to liquidate the governmental machinery. His press service reports that the respective amendments to the Republic's Law "On Government of the Karachai-Circassian Republic (KCR)" were discussed at the regular sitting of the government.

Observers and residents of the city-resort of Sochi complain about facts of using administrative resources during early voting for City Assembly Deputies that started on February 26. However, the local electoral commission assures that everything was lawful.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia has explained the conditions of passing through the only check point in the Georgian-Russian border named "Kazbegi-Verkhni Lars", which will be reopened on March 1.

As reported by a source from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, at night of February 27, unidentified persons shelled a shop in Nazran from their sub-machine guns killing one person and wounding another one.

After President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov announced construction of a mountain-ski resort in the Argun Gorge, the republic's authorities began talking about the tourist attractiveness of the region; however, tourist experts and businessmen are rather sceptical to this idea, thinking that tourists would not come to Chechnya in near future.

The re-erected "Memorial of Glory", which was blown up in Kutaisi, Georgia, will be located behind the building of the museum of the Great Patriotic War on the Poklonnaya Mount.

On February 26, the Garadag District Court of Baku upheld the presentation of the District Prosecutor's Office and extended the custody term of Einullah Fatullaev, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Real Azerbaijan", who is kept in the Baku Investigatory Isolation Facility (known as "SIZO"), by two more months.

Today, the Moscow City Court started considering the claim on rehabilitation of Ruslan Musaev, who was earlier acquitted on the attempt case on President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov in May 2007. After a ten-minute session, the consideration of the case on the merits was reappointed on March 10. The reason for delay was in the statement made by the representative of the Ministry of Finance about the need on their part to calculate damage caused to Musaev by unjustified prosecution and formulate their position in the court.