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Krasnodar human rights activists have launched a hotline telephone on the matters related to forthcoming elections. The territorial NGO "Civil Voice" was the initiator.

Today, the Independent Press Centre in Moscow has held presentation of the report prepared by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" entitled: "Ingushetia 2007. Where Now?", presenting a review of the events that took place in the Republic in 2007 and containing recommendations to the authorities of the region and heads of power agencies on how to remedy the situation.

Leaflets have appeared in public places of Ingushetia, in which the militants are promising, as on March 1, to start killing drug dealers and owners of gambling dens and slot machine halls.

The Military Prosecutor's Office of the Combined Armed Forces in Northern Caucasus has initiated a criminal case under Article 293 of Russian Criminal Code ("Negligence") on the fact of artillery bombardment of Gekhi village, Urus-Martan District of Chechnya.

This week, proceeding will go on in Stavropol on the case of Lilia Leonova, a teacher of Kindergarten No. 78 "Alye Parusa", accused of sticking the mouth of one of fooling girls with adhesive tape.

On February 11, the Constitutional Court of Armenia rejected the claim of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who demanded to recognize the obstacles that he has faced in his pre-election campaign to be insuperable.

The Federal Service of Court Marshals (FSCM) accuses three members of the "Voice of Beslan" Public Organization of beating seven court marshals and a judge.

The relatives of Yusup Chapanov, who was killed in the course of a special operation in Nazran on February 1 on suspicion of taking part in a number of terror acts in the territory of Ingushetia, are confident of his innocence and are going to strive for thorough investigation into this incident.

The traffic flow along the Transcaucasian Highway ("Transcam") connecting South Ossetia with the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (RNO-A) has been completely restored.

Andrei Keilin, a resident of Karachaevo-Circassia, who was earlier accused of murdering two students in Stavropol and kept for some time at the pre-trial detention facility (SIZO), has decided to sue law enforcement bodies and claim compensation of moral damage in the sum of 1 million roubles.

The yesterday's too lenient, in the opinion of the Chechen party, verdict to Lieutenant Colonel Korgun, guilty of murdering a woman-resident of the Shatoi District of Chechnya, can result in sharp worsening of relations between militaries and civil authorities, the "Kommersant" newspaper writes today.

According to Eugenia Zhivkova, Rapporteur of the PACE Monitoring Committee, the Azerbaijani journalism in general - and the printed one in particular - is highly politicized.

The United Opposition of Georgia has held a two-hour action under the motto "Thieves of Votes" in the centre of Tbilisi, in Rustaveli Avenue, and accused President Mikhail Saakashvili and Levan Tarkhnishvili, Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission of Georgia, of falsification of the January 5 election.

Sergey Rozhkov, a journalist from the city of Tuapse, Krasnodar Territory, was detained at night of February 2 in the house of his relative, when he was preparing a lawful protest action. According to the journalist, he was handcuffed, beaten and thrown into the luggage compartment of the militia's "Zhiguli" car.

By their one-sided coverage of the pre-election campaign, the TV Channels of Armenia, including the private ones, have really created compelling obstacles for the first Armenian president in the pre-election race.

On the outcomes of another inspection of the custody conditions of inmates kept at the Chernokozovo Corrective Colony No. 2, the Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya has not confirmed that convicts are tortured in this facility and the custody conditions are intolerable.

Military actions and special operations undertaken in the Caucasus with the aim to eliminate the threat of terror are inefficient in struggling against radicalism, but on the contrary, they strengthen it, asserts Ruslan Aushev, the first President of Ingushetia.

On February 7, 2008, the Khamovniki Court of Moscow ruled to cancel the conviction record from Anton Stepanenko, imam of the city of Pyatigorsk, under the verdict of the Pyatigorsk City Court of the Stavropol Territory of March 30, 2007.

Azamat Akhkubekov, one of those accused of attacking power agencies of Kabardino-Balkaria, has sent a petition to the chair of the court Mohamed Tashuev with a complaint against the treatment of defendants during convoying. If the complaint is not satisfied, Akhkubekov is going to refuse from taking part in the process.

The advocates of Farkhad Aliev, former Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan, remained dissatisfied with the medical examination of their client. Elton Guliev, one of ex-minister's defenders, has stated that Aliev's transfer to the prison clinic was caused not by care of his health but by desire to prevent his meeting with PACE co-Rapporteurs.