Encyclopedia

ARTICLE 19 condemns the sentencing of Caucasian Knot journalist, Zhalaudi Geriev, to three years in jail on dubious narcotics charges, which we believe to be politically motivated.

On 5 September 2016, the Shali District Court of Chechnya sentenced human rights defender Mr Zhalaudi Geriev to three years imprisonment on charges of drug possession.

In summer of 2014, Azerbaijan faced a wave of arrests of opposition politicians, journalists, and human rights defenders. In particular, the story of Leyla and Arif Yunus spouses got resonance beyond Azerbaijan. Baku officials declared inadmissibility of interference in the internal affairs of the state; in turn, opposition and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including the Amnesty International (AI), the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Human Rights Watch (HRW), protested against the actions of the state security of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani journalist, author of the series of journalist reports dealing with state-level corruption in Azerbaijan. On October 24, 2012, she was awarded the Courage of Journalism Award founded by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF).

It is a self-proclaimed separatist Islamic state and territorial formation in Northern Caucasus. It was recognized as a terrorist organization in the United States and Russia. The full name is the "Islamic State Imarat Kavkaz".

Different sources, including the Russia's FSB, have confirmed the information that militants from Russia are fighting for the Islamic State (IS) (earlier – the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – ISIL), a self-proclaimed entity in the territory of Syria and Iraq. The material of the "Caucasian Knot" below tells about penetration of natives of the Caucasus into the conflict zone and provides estimates of the number of them.

Ruslan Kutaev (born in 1957, resident of Achkhoi-Martan village, Chechen Republic) is the President of the international public-political movement "Assembly of Caucasian Nations", head of the international committee on North Caucasus problems, member of the Supreme Political Council of the party ‘Alliance of Greens and Social Democrats’. 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 July 9, 2013, in the outskirts of Makhachkala, our colleague, a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev, was shot dead. He set the bar high: being in one of the hottest regions of Northern Caucasus, he wrote on hot topics: human rights violations in Dagestan, crimes committed by law enforcers, and persecutions of religious communities and individual believers. He became the 17th journalist killed in Dagestan in the last 20 years and the second employee of the "Caucasian Knot" killed during performance of his professional duties. We bow our heads before him.

The "Caucasian Knot" has compiled a set of most serious environmental problems associated with the Olympic Games in Sochi. The below chronology is based on the materials of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondents for the period from 2006 to 2013.

Nikolai Yarst is a journalist, a correspondent of the "Russian Public TV" TV Channel in Sochi. On May 31, 2013, he was charged with drug possession. The journalist himself and his colleagues believe the charge was fabricated.

Andrei Rudomakha is a social activist, a coordinator of the NGO "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus", Chairman of the Krasnodar Regional Branch of the "Yabloko" Party, a member of the international public organization "Network of Black Sea NGOs".

Suren Gazaryan is an activist of the public organization "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus", who was fighting for the preservation of the environment of the Krasnodar Territory, despite being persecuted by law enforcers.

Evgeny Vitishko is an ecological activist from Sochi, Chairman of the public organization "Tuapse Public University", and a member of the Board of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus".

Mikhail Savva (born November 19, 1964, in Krasnodar) is a Russian human rights defender, political analyst, social and political activist.

The 2014 Winter Olympic Games and the city of Sochi are more and more often an object of attention of Russian and foreign mass media. Journalists try to get information about what happens in the city not only from official sources, but also from civil society activists. In order to help our Russian and foreign colleagues, the editorial board of the "Caucasian Knot" hereby presents a brief directory with contact data of independent Sochi activists, lawyers, ecologists and politicians, who are ready to communicate with media people. The directory also provides contacts of the city and territorial officials and power bodies.

According to calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot", starting from 2000, the territory of Russia saw 81 terror acts, involving 123 suicide bombers with at least 52 female suicide bombers among them. The terror acts killed 1216 persons and wounded more than 3260 persons.

In 2013, in the Krasnodar Territory, a broad range of civil and political activists were persecuted by local authorities. The pretexts were the campaign launched by the authorities to tighten control over non-profit organizations (NPOs) and the growing social tension related to the upcoming Olympic Games in Sochi. The "Caucasian Knot" has compiled the most notable cases of pressure on activists in Krasnodar and Sochi.