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Today, the Ministry of Justice of Lithuania has recalled its European Arrest Warrant issued in relation to natives of Chechnya - spouses Malik and Khadizhat Gataev, - convicted for violence over children, who had been given them for rearing. The married couple is now in Finland.

Russia has no policy for Northern Caucasus - only an attempt to use bayonets that leads to numerous victims only. This was stated by Svetlana Gannushkina, a human rights defender, chair of the committee "Civil Assistance", a member of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" and a member of the Board on Human Rights at the President of the Russian Federation, last week in Moscow in the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Centre during expanded debates "Conflicts in the Caucasus" from the general cycle "War and Peace".

The Audit Chamber of the Russian Federation has sent a letter to the heads of the Federal Security Bureau (FSB) and Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Russian Federation reporting about the pressure exerted on the auditors of the Audit Chamber in the course of the check of use of budgetary funds and legality of disposal of land resources in Ingushetia. According to Mr Stepashin, in Dagestan figurants of a crime tried to bribe local employees of the Audit Chamber with 10 million roubles.

Today, on March 24 the Stavropol Territorial Court has sentenced four employees of the local branch of the Medical-Social Examinations Bureau, accused of bribe-taking for certification of citizens' physical inability, where the latter had legitimate right to get such certifications.

In the Astrakhan Region, the investigation is under way in the case concerning the extortion of bribes by the officers of the first company of Special Battalion No. 1 of the traffic and patrol service (TPS) of the Board of Interior for the Astrakhan Region.

In the Rostov Region, Rafik Jaffarov, 35-year old sergeant major serving in an infantry company received a monthly fee from soldiers for the permission to be absent from service. The bribe amount was from five to thirty thousand roubles per month.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, the representatives of the public have negatively responded to the statements made the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan concerning the deportation of the Armenian migrants staying illegally in Turkey, however, according to Gaguik Avanesyan, the Karabakh movement activist, these statements will not hamper the process aimed at normalizing the Armenian-Georgian relations. Political scientist Manvel Sarkisyan supports this opinion. Manvel Sarkisyan supports this opinion.

The Georgian Parliament has passed a resolution to start this week the discussion of draft legislation concerning the Freedom Charter initiated by the deputy Gia Tortladze.

On March 22, the Krasnodar Leninskiy District Court held a preliminary hearing of the case of human rights activist Anastasia Denisova, leader of the ETnIka civic organization.

At a court session held on March 22 to hear the case dealing with the attack by gunmen on law enforcement facilities on October 13, 2005, the participants of the court proceedings discussed the restraint to be imposed on the defendants as their retention in custody expires on March 27. The prosecution insists on applying the previously imposed restraint in the form of detention in custody whereas the defence lawyers demand that it should be changed referring to the defendants' health condition.

The Adyg public organizations of Kabardino-Balkaria see the conference held in Tbilisi as an intervention into Russia's home affairs and an attempt to use the tragedy of the Adyg nation as a tool of political pressure on the Russian Federation. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Zhelyabi Kumekhov, Chairman of the Coordination Board of the Adyg Public Organizations of Kabardino-Balkaria.

Despite the fact that restoration of housing facilities destroyed as a result of the war in August 2008 goes not so quickly as expected; and South Ossetia is already named a "black hole", where Russia's money infinitely disappears, today the situation is changing for the better. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent met those who already mark their housewarming and those who were less lucky.

For two days, on March 20-21, the Tbilisi-based hotel "Korti Yard Marriott" hosted a closed discussion of historical works presented by Caucasian scientists from Europe, Caucasus and Georgia. In the course of the scientific-practical conference "Concealed Nations, Crimes-in-Progress: Circassians and Peoples of Northern Caucasus between Past and Future", its delegates passed an appeal to the parliament of Georgia asking to recognize the genocide of the Adyg nation. In the course of the conference a resolution was also adopted concerning recognition of the actions of the Russian army in the 18th-19th centuries in the territory of today's Chechnya and Ingushetia to be a fact of genocide.

Isalmagomed Nabiev, a well-known publicist and chairman of the independent trade union of drivers and entrepreneurs of Dagestan, has written an open letter to President of Dagestan Magomedsalam Magomedov, in which he treats the adoption by former authorities in September 1999 of the Law "On Prohibition of Wahhabite and Other Extremist Activities" as a mistake.

Seeing no results of the official investigation into disappearance in St Petersburg of four natives of Ingushetia, relatives of the widow of human rights defender Maksharip Aushev, who was killed last October, the victims and their relatives held their own inquiry. The witnesses they found told them that disappearance of the above relatives was a kidnapping that looked like a professional violent detention executed by law enforcers.

Former militia major Alexei Dymovskiy, who had told in the Internet about malversations of high-ranking employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) in Novorossisk, was found guilty of disseminating data discrediting honour and dignity of militia officials.

In the course of a special operation conducted in the Urus-Martan District of Chechnya, a supposed militant was killed. This was reported today to President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov by Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov.

Law enforcement bodies of Philippines have detained anew Georgiy Shavishvili, one of earlier released Georgian seamen. This was reported today by Levan Akhvlediani, president of the Georgian-Philippine business association.

The law enforcement bodies of Chechnya have identified three more members of the armed underground liquidated in the Vedeno District. Now, five out of six casualties are known. The search of IAF members in the district continues.

The complicated ecological situation because of the "Electrozink" factory, social support of veterans of local wars and retired military servicemen, departure of the population from the mountain part of the republic, life of forced migrants and broken ties with relatives living in Georgia - these are the main problems enumerated by residents of the capital of North Ossetia on March 21, when they met activists of the Project "Peace to the Caucasus", among which there were members of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation.