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The European Court on Human Rights in Strasbourg has found Russia guilty of disappearances of Chechen residents and torturing residents of Ingushetia.

According to the Federation of Human Rights Organizations of Azerbaijan (FHROA), in total, there are now 66 political prisoners in Azerbaijan. This was stated by Leila Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, in her interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent in the context of the forthcoming discussion at the spring PACE session of the issue of appointing a special rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

Ten former pupils of the boarding school located in Nartan village of Kabardino-Balkaria, where the prosecutor's office had revealed roughest violations of the legislation on accommodation of orphans and children remaining without parental care, have addressed for help to human rights activists. The pupils stand in defence of Mamkhegova, Liudmila Kerimovna, dismissed deputy director for pupils' life-support.

Pavel Ryaguzov, employee of the FSB, accused of excess of his official duties, has refused in the court from his evidences, which he had given in the course of investigation of the murder case of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Human rights activists are indignant with the attacks on the public organization "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights" and plan to do everything to defend it. This is the topic of the statement made at today's press conference in the Independent Press Centre in Moscow by representatives of the leading human rights organizations of Russia.

The law enforcement bodies of Chechnya are finding out the circumstances of the incident that took place last night in Argun, the third city of Chechnya. A local woman-resident addressed the militia with a statement that at night on February 4 a group of armed persons kidnapped her adult son.

In Nazran, Ingushetia, a car of the lawyer engaged in investigating kidnappings was hijacked in broad daylight from near the building of the Investigatory Department. Law enforcers demonstrate unwillingness to investigate this incident, which makes human rights activists believe that this is a form of pressure on the advocate.

According to human rights activists, nine years ago, in the course of a wide-scale "zachistka" (clean-up) conducted in the settlement of Novye Aldy and adjacent districts of Grozny, 56 persons were killed. In spite of the fact that the power units, which held this "special action", have been established, those guilty of assassinating unarmed people remain unpunished.

The major issue for refugees is the fate of the Prigorodny District and their return there, as reports Bagaudin Khadziev, employee of the human rights organization "Union of Genocide Victims". Refugees complain that the compensations allocated to forced migrants from the Prigorodny District and Vladikavkaz, are given out not to them.

The Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya has delivered to the court the criminal case opened against a resident of the Republic, aged 56, who shot dead his daughter of 33 in autumn of last year. He is accused not only of the murder, but also of illegal purchase of firearms.

The film "City of Lonely Mothers" made by the "Russia Today" Russian English-language TV Channel on the life in Tskhinvali during the first days of last August South Ossetia-Georgia conflict was awarded a silver medal at the international festival named "New York Festivals".

In 2008, kidnappings in Dagestan did not stop, which is also admitted by spokesmen from the MIA of Dagestan. However, in estimation of their number and consequences the official data is essentially different from what human rights activists report. This is the topic of the statement of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", which was received by the "Caucasian Knot".

The today's meeting in Vladikavkaz of the Head of North Ossetia Taimuraz Mamsurov with Gesche Karrenbrock, representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Russia, has ended with an agreement on continuation and strengthening of cooperation with the aim to settle the problem of forced migrants.

In Chechnya, law enforcers hold inquiry into a young woman's murder; her body with several gunshot wounds was found in the Shelkovskoy District.

Sergeant Alexander Glukhov who deserted his military unit based in Akhalgori for Georgia was not the first one to quit Russian military troops deployed in South Ossetia. Shortly before the incident with Glukhov, another soldier had tried to run away home via Georgia; however he was detained there and sent back.

In the city of Zverevo, Rostov Region, the debts of miners-pensioners are collected in the mass order through the court. Valery Dyakonov, deputy of the city duma of Zverevo, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that five trials took place in recent days and ruled to collect the pensioners' indebtedness for heating on the suits lodged by the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Donenergo".

Residents of Sochi are going to file a complaint against Russian government to the European Court on Human Rights about mass violations of the European Convention on Human Rights under the aegis of the forthcoming Olympic Games.

Today, court marshals and officials of the Agency for Managing State Property of the Republic of Dagestan (former Ministry of Property and Land Relations) arrived in the "Charitable Women's Hospital" located in Makhachkala.

Yesterday, on February 2, late at night, the police arrested Khikmet Veliev, a resident of Nardaran and an active participant of recent anti-Israeli actions held in this settlement located 30 km north-east of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" demands from Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov to coordinate the route of the action planned on February 8 in memory of assassinated Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova and other recent victims of politically motivated terror in Moscow.