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Mother of Murat Kardanov, who was first registered as a perished attacker on Nalchik on October 13, 2005, and then detained on December 30, 2008, in Zolukokoazhe village, asserts that her son could not be among the participants of the attack, since he was very sick and hid at home.

Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Azerbaijan Ramil Usubov has recalled his claim against Leila Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD).

Residents of a 144-apartment block in Sochi can found themselves in the street overnight. While the authorities refuse registering their rights for real estate, referring to the fact that the house has not been commissioned, the apartments are registered to other people.

In Ekazhevo village, Nazran District of Ingushetia, unidentified persons threw a grenade into the yard of the household belonging to Hussein Sakalov, assistant pf the Public Prosecutor of the Republic.

Today, the capital of Armenia hosted a rally of the opposition dated to the first anniversary of the tragic events on March 1, 2008, in Yerevan, when at dispersal of a peaceful demonstration 10 persons were lost. By different estimates, the rally brought together from 50 to 60 thousand persons.

An advocate is still not admitted to Ahmed Aliev, detained on February 21 in the course of a special operation conducted in the capital of Dagestan. Nadira Isaeva, editor-in-chief of the weekly named "Chernovik" (Blueprint), asserts that it is done deliberately, to hide the fact of torturing him.

The Elista City Court has rejected the petition of the inquiry to extend the custody of Radiy Burulov, Mayor of the capital of Kalmykia, and left him at large on bail.

Today in the morning, at an attempt on Magomed Evloev, head of the criminal militia of Sunzha ROVD of Ingushetia, three persons suffered: Evloev himself, a ROVD employee Rashid Evloev and driver Dzangiev. The latter is in a grave condition, as reported the press service of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation for Ingushetia.

Today, the railway ferry line between the Russian port "Kavkaz" and Bulgarian port "Varna" was opened. The railway ferry named "Vanguard" carrying 40 tank-cars filled with industrial oil left the Russian port in the morning and shaped its course to Bulgaria.

In the near future, an agreement will be signed defining the mandate of the Russian military base in Abkhazia, as Sergey Shamba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, having emphasized the interest of the Abkhazian party.

Four residents of Georgia were kidnapped today by an armed criminal grouping in the Karel District of Georgia near the administrative border with South Ossetia. This was reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia, while its South-Ossetian counterpart, in its turn, has refuted this information.

The report of the US Department of State (DoS) on the situation with human rights has caused an ambiguous reaction in Azerbaijan. The human rights activists, polled by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, have agreed with the report's estimates, while the authorities refute the DoS' data.

On February 27, additional staff of 45 Azerbaijani military peacemakers left for Afghanistan. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Eldar Sabiroglu, head of the press service of the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan.

The visit to the region of the Karabakh conflict of co-chairs of the Minsk OSCE Group Yuri Merzlyakov, Bernard Fussier and Matthew Brayza will continue, after their meetings in Baku, with negotiations in Yerevan and Stepanakert.

Abkhazia refutes the news about eviction of 50 Georgian families out of the Gali District, which was promulgated by the Georgian MIA.

The Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) has finished its inquiry into the case of blowing up, in August 2007, of the "Neva-Express" train. The materials of the case have been sent to the General Prosecutor's Office for approval of the bill of particulars, as Alexander Bastrykin, head of the ICPO, told to the Collegium of the General Prosecutor's Office on February 25.

Today, the Georgian police have dispersed a rally of the youth political movement named "November 7", whose members tried to block traffic in Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.

In central Moscow, in Prechistenskie Vorota Square, about sixty picketers are holding their action in memory of advocate Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova, murdered by a gunman on January 19 just several metres off the place of today's action. Today is 40 days after the murder.

There are no concerns with the police as to the rally to be held on March 1; the law enforcement bodies are sure that "people will calmly come to the rally and pay tribute to last year's casualties." This was stated by Alik Sarkisyan, Chief of the Police of the Republic of Armenia, in a press conference on February 27.

According to some sources, Liudmila Alekseeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, has reported about Restricted Order No. 800, under which the militia now has the right to shoot to kill citizens holding a rally.