Encyclopedia

In 2015, Ruslan Dauev, a lawyer from Vladikavkaz, defended the rights of the family of Ruslan Tskaev, detained on suspicion of attempted murder of a policeman, who died due to abuse of power of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). As a result, 10 current MIA employees have been already attracted to criminal liability.

In 2015, Khachim Zheligashtov, a public figure from the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), helped repatriates from Syria and low-income families in the KBR. He organized several charity actions.

In 2015, Ruslan Martagov, a political analyst from Chechnya, made a number of statements on arbitrariness of the authorities of the Chechen Republic and persecutions of the dissent.

In 2015, Ruslan Kambiev, a blogger and human rights defender, initiated the creation of an independent North-Caucasian expert-analytical centre, which united human rights defenders, journalists and public activists of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) and other regions of the country. Mr Kambiev openly stated pressure by the authorities on public activists, the formation of "manual" councils and public chambers in regions, which fail to raise real problems of interest to the society.

The three-year jail sentence that Chechen journalist Zhalaudi Geriyev received on a charge of drug possession on 5 September was clearly a politically-motivated punishment for his reporting and, as such, was the latest offensive in Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov’s war against independent journalism.

In response to a Russian court sentencing Zhalaudi Geriev, a journalist with the online news site Caucasian Knot, to three years imprisonment, Freedom House issued the following statement.

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".