Interview

See below an interview with Aage Borchgrevink, a Senior Advisor to the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC), who led the NHC mission to Georgia during the October 26 parliamentary elections. The mission consisted of four people, two of whom were in the group with the representatives of the European Platform for Democratic Elections, and two others – in the group of the Human Rights Centre.

Lene Wetteland, an adviser of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, who has been working in Armenia since March 2008, told in her interview to the "Caucasian Knot" why Armenian citizens managed to achieve Serzh Sargsyan's resignation; how Nikol Pashinyan's position is estimated now; and what should be expected from the "Republicans".

The persecution issue of gays in Northern Caucasus became debatable thanks to investigations by Elena Milashina in the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper. However, gays are persecuted not only in Chechnya, but throughout Northern Caucasus, where the theme of such repressions had been tabooed for a decade. In some regions, extortions from and blackmailing of gays by law enforcers were a sort of a conveyor process.

Despite the decrease of the number of terror acts and of the militants' activeness in Chechnya, Chechens do not cease their attempts to go to Europe and claim for the refugee status there. Some of them are trying to receive the refugee status because of persecutions at home, others go there hoping to earn money, and yet others want to obtain a highly qualified medical care for themselves and their relatives. A journalist of the "Caucasian Knot" has covered the whole way, traditionally followed by Chechen refugees, leaving Russia for Europe, aiming to receive refuge ("azul"), thus, undertaking the so-called "azultrip".

"History of Ignorant Travel" is a diary that was kept by a person, who had once decided to fight for the "Islamic State" (IS was recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in Russia) and who was personally convinced of falsity and perversity of many of IS' followers. The diary, telling about the author's unfortunate experience of taking part in the erection of Caliphate in Syria (until May 2015), about his custody in jail awaiting execution, about torture, and about a completely unexpected escape, is written in poor Russian; and its publication in the unedited form is impossible. Excerpts from the diary are presented in the below text of the interview. The interview was recorded in a number of phased and took a long time. The "Caucasian Knot" emphasizes that this publication is not aimed at any propaganda or counter-propaganda; its main idea is to present some little-known information about the organization banned in Russia and the evidence of the person, whose vision was undergoing significant changes.

Project of the constitutional reforms that were put to a referendum won’t enable Armenia to ratify the Rome Statute – key document of the International Criminal Court, Venice Commission believes. According to the Venice Commission, basically all its substantive recommendations have been accepted in the project of the constitutional reforms. However, Article 53 has not been changed to enable Armenia to ratify the Rome Statute. Besides, amendments to Article 41 don’t correspond to the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Venice Commission says in response to the questions of the ‘Caucasian Knot’.

The Krasnodar Professor Mikhail Savva has explained, in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot", the reasons that impelled him to emigrate, and commented on the situation in the Krasnodar Territory in connection with the persecution of non-profit organizations (NPOs). He believes that power agents will continue persecuting him; therefore he has no intention to return to Russia, even in the event of revocation of his verdict or amnesty. Besides, as Professor Savva has stated, Russian NPOs may face a "decorative future."

In her interview to the "Caucasian Knot", Natalia Zubarevich, Associate Professor of the Higher School of Economics, an economist and geographer, expressed her opinion concerning the consequences of the arising economic crisis for the regions of Northern Caucasus and southern Russia. According to the expert, the period of turbulence will be long and affect not only Russia, but also countries of Southern Caucasus economically related to our country. However, unstable regions that "face hostilities" can count on the economic support of Moscow.

The speech of Ruslan Kutaev at the Urus-Martan City Court of the Chechen Republic, July 4, 2014. Ruslan Kutaev is the President of the international public-political movement "Assembly of Caucasian Nations", head of the international committee on North Caucasus problems. Kutaev has been kept under arrest since February 20, 2014 on charges of illegal drug possession. On June 19, 2014, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" recognized Kutaev to be a political prisoner. On July 7 he was sentenced to four years of imprisonment in general regime colony.

On the eve of the anniversary of the end of the Caucasian War, Vladimir Bobrovnikov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), has answered the questions of the "Caucasian Knot", touching on a number of problematic aspects of the perception of the history of Caucasian Wars, politicization and mythologization of them.

The head of the Norway's Foreign Office has commented – in his exclusive interview to the "Caucasian Knot" (CK) – the outcomes of the October 1, 2012, parliamentary elections in Georgia, presented his vision of the prospects of Norwegian-Georgian cooperation and Georgia's accession to NATO, and highlighted the main directions of Norwegian-Azerbaijani cooperation in developing the fuel-and-energy complex and the international transport corridor, and the state of things with human rights in Azerbaijan. Mr Minister has also touched on the issues, problems and recent achievements in Russian-Norwegian relations, and on the initiative for development of the civil society in Northern Caucasus.

Russian authorities have managed to isolate the Chechen Republic from western journalists and almost completely block the flow of independent information from the region. However, the commitment to act most cruelly and violently in Chechnya is in fact an evidence of Moscow's weakness; while the best way out is in improvement of social and economic life in Chechnya and launching the negotiation process. This was told in the interview to the "Caucasian Knot" by Lord Frank Judd, participant of the inter-party parliamentary group for defence of human rights of the British Parliament, former PACE's Rapporteur for Chechnya, who paid a visit to the republic as the head of the British parliamentary delegation on February 15-18, 2010.

Thomas de Waal, British journalist and writer, former editor of the Caucasus department of the British Institute for War and Peace Reporting, co-founder of the non-government organization GO Group, one of the best-known Western experts on the Caucasus. In an interview to the "Caucasian Knot" he commented on the situation around the ratification of Armenian-Turkish protocols, on the prospects of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the relations between Azerbaijan and Iran.

On 25 September, the president of the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR) Souyer Belassen attended the Moscow court sitting that was considering a suit of the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov against the chairman of the Memorial Human Rights Center Oleg Orlov. After the sitting, the human rights activist gave her vision of this legal process and the overall situation with human rights in the Russian Federation.

About a year ago in Armenia, the GALA TV Company, non-controlled by the authorities and based in the city of Gyumri, the second largest city of Armenia, managed to escape closing. Great efforts to this end were made by the Journalists' Press Club named "Asparez". Levon Barsegyan, President of this Gyumri-based Club, shared his views with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about today's situation in Armenian media and characterized the country's internal political processes.