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The Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation has stated that involvement of former Russian Army colonel Yuri Budanov in disappearances of residents of Chechnya in 2000 was not confirmed. Budanov has evidenced that he could not physically be present at the block-post, where a group of local residents had disappeared without any traces.

President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev has stated, at the sitting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation held on June 9 in Makhachkala, that the low efficiency of the authorities in some republics of Northern Caucasus is accompanied by the loss of trust in the authorities and loss of their respect by the population.

Akop Sanasaryan, chairman of the Greens, stated on June 8 that among Armenian most topical environmental problems are the continued build-up of the coast of Lake Sevan and catastrophic reduction of fish stocks in the Lake.

In Chechnya, under decision of the head of the local Ministry for Emergencies (MfE), all the fire-fighting forces of Grozny are now involved in searching a boy of 7, who, probably, got drowned in Sunzha River on June 4, and another boy of 5, who got drowned on May 30. This was reported by Timur Taisumov, official representative of Russian MfE for Chechnya.

Russian human rights activists express their indignation with political prosecutions in Armenia and demand that the authorities of the country immediately release Arshaluis Akopyan, a representative of the Helsinki Association.

Alik Le, leader of the public organization "Union of Imereti Residents", believes that previous "Olympstroy" bosses tried solving their problems separately from the interests of Sochi residents. According to his story, Taimuraz Bolloev, the new head of this state corporation, has no time for getting into his mission - he should start acting, and his first step should be to start dialogue with the population.

Suspects of today morning's murder of Aza Gazgireyeva, Deputy Chair of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, are established, as reported by President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov.

On June 8, several dozens of Georgian journalists and members of NGOs held a protest action at the building of the National Commission for Communications with a demand to ensure the freedom of mass media.

Yuri Budanov, who served his term for murdering a Chechen girl, and released in the end of 2008, was interrogated as a suspect under a new criminal case. The ex-colonel is suspected of involvement to murdering three residents of Chechnya.

The Islamic armed underground groupings of Dagestan are a serious danger; and the state should fight them; however even a greater danger is in the clannish lifestyle traditional for the republic, when groups of clans fight for power. This is the topic of the statement made by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in the context of the recent murder in Makhachkala of Adilgerei Magomedtagirov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan.

Today in Ingushetia, on the "Kavkaz" Federal Highway, in the area of municipal district Gamurdievo of the city of Nazran, unidentified persons shelled a column of sappers from grenade launchers. A soldier was slightly wounded.

So far, there is no reliable data confirming the death of Doku Umarov, leader of Chechen separatists, who declared himself in 2007 to be the commander of Caucasian mujahads. However, observers do not exclude that the authorities plan to announce Umarov's liquidation by the forthcoming holidays. According to Aslambek Apaev, an expert of the Moscow Helsinki Group for Northern Caucasus, if Umarov was really killed, the fact will be disclosed only by June 12, the Day of Russia.

Relatives of the brothers Isa and Musa Yamadaev, who were summoned by investigatory bodies to the North-Ossetian city of Mozdok for interrogation on the case about disappearance of one of the soldiers of the recently disbanded special-purpose GRU battalion "Vostok", are afraid for their life.

The health condition of Arshaluist Akopyan, a representative of the Helsinki Association, who is now in custody in Armenia, is currently normal; he was already visited by advocate Gayane Khachatryan. Mikael Danielyan, human rights activist and chairman of the Helsinki Association told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about it.

Jean-Francois Juliar, secretary general of the international organization in defence of the press "Reporters without Borders" (RwB) has sent messages to Ali Gasanov, head of the political division of President's Administration, and Nushiravan Magerramli, chairman of the National Television and Radio Board (NTRB), expressing his concern of the statements proposing to set up control over the Internet space of Azerbaijan.

The judicial session due today on the criminal case on attack on Nalchik on October 13, 2005, was cancelled because of absence of advocate Magomed Abubakarov, who left for Chechnya to take part in some other trial. His clients refused to be tried without him.

Today, the Mayoralty of Makhachkala hosted a regular sitting of the city's antiterrorist commission, which brought together activists, workers of power agencies, intellectuals, mass media and leaders of official confessions. In the course of the sitting, the participants criticised the work of militia.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has signed an order to nullify his Decree of October 23, 2008, which stipulated setting up and formation order of the fact-finding group about clashes of the opposition with the police on March 1, 2008, in Yerevan.

The murder of Adilgerei Magomedtagirov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, can have something to do with the presidential election to be held in February 2010. According to some sources, Mr Magomedtagirov could be considered as a candidate for President of Dagestan, should the Kremlin decide to bank on a "strong hand" in the republic.

Advocates of the NGO named "Priority of Human Rights" have sent a complaint of the citizens, who suffered in the course of dispersal of a protest action in Tbilisi on November 7, 2007, to the European Court on Human Rights.