Encyclopedia

Ramadan (Arabic) or Ramazan (Persian and Turkic) is the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar, the month of fasting (as-saum). Ramadan is the month of spiritual and moral cleaning, as well as of faith and will strengthening. In 2020, Ramadan began at sunset on April 23; the first day of fasting (Uraza) was April 24; and the month will end on May 23.

A Chechen refugee in Austria and a harsh Kadyrov's critic; a former investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), who collaborated with special services; was assassinated in Vienna on July 4, 2020.

A participant of the second Chechen military campaign, one of the field commanders close to Shamil Basaev and Aslan Maskhadov. Shot dead in Berlin in 2019.

Tumso Abdurakhmanov is a blogger from Chechnya. After a conflict with Ramzan Kadyrov's relative, he left the republic and went first to Georgia, and then to Poland, where he is trying to get political asylum.

Magomed "Lord" Daudov is a former Chechen militant who was awarded the title of "Hero of Russia", the chairman of the Chechen parliament under Ramzan Kadyrov.

The day of October 23, 2019, marked the 17th anniversary of the seizure of the Dubrovka Theatre Centre. The terror act took place in Moscow, on October 23-26, 2002. A group of armed militants led by Movsar Baraev took 916 hostages. The terrorists demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities in Chechnya and the withdrawal of federal troops from the republic. During rescue operation 130 hostages, including 10 children, were killed, and more than 700 other hostages were injured.

He is a native of Chechnya, who is trying to get refugee status in Germany. In September 2017, he became the first native of the republic to confess to his homosexuality.

On September 5, 2016, Chechen journalist Zhalaudi Geriev, working for the 'Caucasian Knot', was sentenced to three years of imprisonment in a penal colony on charges of drug possession. Prior to his arrest, on April 16, 2016, Geriev was kidnapped by armed men on his way to the airport after he had already bought an airline ticket and registered online. After kidnapping law enforcers confiscated his phones and backpack, which allegedly contained drugs. The armed men then took the journalist to the forest and questioned him, tying his hands and putting a plastic bag over his head.

Zhalaudi Geriev is a Chechen journalist and a correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot". On September 5, 2016, he was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment on the charge of drug possession. The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" recognized Zhalaudi Geriev as a political prisoner.

Azerbaijani journalist and rights defender

February 23 marks 75 years since the beginning of the Stalin's deportation of Chechen and Ingush people. However, the memorial day is not officially marked in Chechnya itself. Ruslan Kutaev, the chair of the Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus, who publicly spoke in 2014 against the ban on the February mourning events, was sentenced on the falsified charge and sent to prison for almost four years.

The history of kidnappings, torture and murders of gays in Chechnya has touched on not only men, many of whom left Russia or went, well in advance, to study and work in other regions. The fate of a woman of non-traditional sexual orientation is entirely in the hands of her relatives; and they are no less cruel than law enforcers. The "Caucasian Knot" tells about what queer women face in Chechnya.

Ramzan Kadyrov is a Chechen politician, a son of Akhmat Kadyrov, the first president of the Chechen Republic. Since 2011, Ramzan Kadyrov has been the leader of Chechnya.

At the request of the "Caucasian Knot", a GIS expert, a graduate of the Cartography and Geoinformation Division of the Geography Department of the Moscow State University has analyzed, on the condition of anonymity, the maps of the Chechen Republic and the Republic of Ingushetia in the light of the agreement on the exchange of territories signed on September 26, and made a new map depicting the Ingush-Chechen border.

A Russian MMA fighter, a native of Dagestan. After a battle with Al Iaquinta in April 2018, Khabib Nurmagomedov became the first Russian citizen in UFC with a champion title. On October 6, 2018, he defeated Conor McGregor at UFC 229 tournament in Las Vegas.

On July 9, 2013, Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev, our colleague, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, was killed in the suburb of Makhachkala.

He defends human rights, investigated a mass execution in Chechnya, and made efforts to make socially important problems public.

He made public facts of violations during the pre-election campaign in Armenia.