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The nationalist Nikita Tikhonov, accused of murdering lawyer Stanislav Markelov, was transferred from SIZO (pre-trial prison) "Lefortovo", where he was kept since April 2009, to SIZO "Matrosskaya Tishina".

On February 18, General-Colonel Arkadiy Edelev, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, who was in charge of Northern Caucasus, was dismissed. The corresponding decree was signed by President Dmitri Medvedev, who had promised at the sitting of the MIA Collegium to reshuffle the ministerial cadre. Sources in the Kremlin report that Edelev may pass over to work for the office of the plenipotentiary representative at the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) and head the Chief Department of the MIA for the NCFD, which Mr Medvedev suggested to create.

In Stavropol, repair works aimed to restore water supply to a kindergarten, school, medical institutions and private houses in the Tashly District are over. The water delivery is resumed.

On Thursday, February 18, the Tbilisi City Court started considering the case of the son of the ex-president of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia - Tsotne, accused of an attempt of deliberate murder.

Makhachkala has opened an exhibition "Northern Caucasus - on Road of Changes" showing works of photographers from Dagestan, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Chechnya and other regions. After Makhachkala, the exhibition will go to Nazran, Grozny and Vladikavkaz.

Three soldiers of the Azerbaijani Army were lost and one more wounded as a result of the skirmishes that burst out in the contact line of the Karabakh conflict zone. This was reported on February 18 by Eldar Sabirogly, head of the press service of Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan. The Karabakh party refutes the data about the victims and the incident as such.

The Chechen Republic sees the climate of fear and lacks any criticism of the authorities. This was stated today at the press conference by Joan Svinson and Lord Frank Judd, members of the Group on Human Rights of the UK Parliament, who visited Checnya.

The advocates of the former militiaman Alexei Dymovskiy, who had placed in the Internet his video appeal to Vladimir Putin, believe that the inspector's decision to appoint a psychological-psychiatric examination of their client is an instrument of pressure on Dymovskiy.

Zulfagar Heyirkhabar, a reporter of the news agency "Salamnews", who was beaten yesterday, on February 18, when he was making a report in Baku about gas explosion in cafe "Karvan", told about the details of the incident at today's press conference held in the office of the Institute of Reporter's Freedom and Safety (IRFS).

The annual report of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) "Attacks on Press in 2009: Armenia" asserts that Armenian authorities continue to control most of the media, while private TV Companies belong to those politicians and businessmen who have close ties with the authorities; manifestations of violence against journalists continue.

The Russian Federation has lost two more cases at the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) on complaints of residents of Chechnya on disappearances of their relatives. The statement of the ECtHR prescribes that Moscow shall pay out 120,000 to the applicants, plus legal costs.

Today, Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, was the venue of a youth protest action in defence of the rights of Elmin Badalov, a student of the Azerbaijani State Oil Academy (ASOA), who was dismissed from the higher school after his publication in the press of an article about corruption in the academy. Bosses of the ASOA assert that the young man was dismissed for poor progress in training.

Activists of some NGOs have stated that checks of passports conducted by law enforcers during night hours are roughest violations of the law. This was their comment on power agents' actions in the settlement Mayakovsky, Staropromyslovskiy District. The militia, in its turn, reports that no complaints arrived from the local population.

Russia calls the Supreme Commissioner of the United Nations on Human Rights to classify the report about secret detention centres, which criticizes Russia for its prisons in the Caucasus. Vladimir Zheglov, Russia's representative, called the report "confrontational" and stated that the document should be removed from the UN's official website, where it was placed last month.

Residents of the city of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, report about two explosions, which happened, when the delegation of the UK Parliament, headed by Lord by Frank Judd was visiting the republic. However, local law enforcement bodies assert that there were no accidents in Grozny during these days.

Galib Muvlanov, 24, a resident of Dagestan, who disappeared nine months ago in Makhachkala, is in the local SIZO (pre-trial isolation facility). According to his advocate, the preliminary investigation is over. Muvlanov is accused of encroaching on the life of law enforcers and illegal storage and manufacture of explosives.

The data about the number of today's explosions in Nazran differs. Local residents told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about six, not two, explosions. According to the latest information, 35 persons suffered.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Republic of Abkhazia has expressed its serious concern of the speech of President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili at the Royal Institute of International Relations in London, where he reconfirmed the intention of the Georgian party to solve the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts by force of arms.

In the period from February 25 to March 1, the Don State Public Library of Rostov-on-Don will host a charitable action of the International Festival of Human Rights Films "Stalker". The organizers of the action are the Moscow Guild of Theatre and Cinema Actors, Rostov Regional Branch of the Union of Journalists of Russia, supported by the European Union. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent learnt about it on February 18 from Igor Stepanov, General Producer of the Festival and a member of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia.

The presidency in the European Union (EU), which is now carried out by Spain, is worried of the situation in Azerbaijan, where "journalists and other persons, who implemented their right to freedom of self-expression, were convicted on doubtful motives." This is said in the EU's statement that arrived to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent from the representative office of the European Commission in Baku.