Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of December 31 to January 6

Accidents on New Year night and first day of 2013 in South of Russia; decision of the "Musavat" Party to nominate its leader to presidency of Azerbaijan; end of reception of the CEC of Armenia of documents from potential presidential candidates; actions in Georgia demanding resignation of President Saakashvili; pickets of relatives of kidnapped coach and celebration of the 70^th anniversary of liberation of Malgobek from fascist troops in Ingushetia, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of December 31, 2012, to January 6, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

First day of New Year not without accidents in South of Russia

In a number of regions of South of Russia, the first day of 2013 was accompanied by various incidents that clouded the holiday.

On January 1, in the Kletsk District of the Volgograd Region, a local resident of 54 took his 10-year-old grandson with him to hunting; the grandson was careless with a rifle, shot at himself and died. Also, in the Volgograd Region, in city of Kalach-on-Don, a fire burst out in a private house on the New Year night and killed five persons, including three children.

Residents of a number of districts of Sochi welcomed the New Year without electricity – 50,000 persons suffered from a power outage caused by technical violations.

Another accident happened on the New Year night in Vladikavkaz. Here, the "Poisk" Trade Centre was on fire. 31 equipment units and 130 persons arrived to the place to fight the fire; however, it was completely suppressed only by the morning of January 1, after burning down 3000 square meters of the Trade Centre.

Azerbaijan: name of one of presidential candidates announced

On January 4, the Majlis of the "Musavat" Party decided to nominate the party leader Isa Gambar, 56, as a presidential candidate of Azerbaijan at the regular election of the state leader scheduled for October 16, 2013. At the previous election in 2003, Mr Gambar also ran for the presidency and, according to official data, took the second place with about 16 percent of votes. The party members believe that its leader was an actual winner, but the election outcomes were falsified.

It is notable that according to the International Centre for Studying Organized Crime and Corruption (OCCRP) the incumbent President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev was put on the list of most corrupted officials of 2012. Apart from Ilham Aliev, the list includes President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Armenia: seven persons have applied to CEC for participation in presidential election

On January 4, Armenia finalized the nomination of presidential candidates. In total, 15 persons had notified the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Armenia about their intention to take part in the race; however, less than half of them managed to cope with the procedure of submitting documents. These are: Serzh Sargsyan, the incumbent president and leader of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia; Raffi Ovannisyan, the leader of the "Heritage" Party; Grant Bagratyan, the leader of the "Freedom" Party, a breakaway from the Armenian National Congress (ANC); Paruir Airikyan, the leader of the Association 'National Self-Determination"; Arman Melikyan, the former head of the MFA of Nagorno-Karabakh; Andrias Gukasyan, the head of the LLC "Radio I"; and a non-partisan citizen Vardan Sedrakyan.

Now, the registration of candidates will last till January 14, while the voting will take place on February 18. In the opinion of Armen Badalyan, a political technologist, the outcome of the election is predefined. The refusal of the leaders of the ANC Levon Ter-Petrosyan and of the "Prosperous Armenia" Gagik Tsarukyan to run for the post has created conditions for actually competition-free election, local experts report.

Georgia: number of public movements demand resignation of Saakashvili

On January 4 and 5, in Tbilisi and some other cities of Georgia, a number of NGOs and public movements held preventive protest actions with a demand of resignation of President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili. The demand is motivated by the fact that at the presidential election on January 5, 2008, Saakashvili was elected for the term of five years. Later, according to the amendments made in the Electoral Code, October was defined as the month for the election. Those who speak in favour of Saakashvili's resignation express their disagreement with the fact that "after the legislative amendments the presidential term of Mikhail Saakashvili was artificially extended by more than six months."

The organizers of the actions are collecting signatures in support of the incumbent's resignation. As of January 5, the appeal to Mikhail Saakashvili to resign was signed by 835,000 persons, as stated by Mikhail Andguladze, the head of the NGO "Unanimity for Public Rights".

Ingushetia: pickets of relatives of kidnapped coach and celebrations of the 70^th anniversary of liberation of Malgobek of Hitlerite troops

On January 4, the Chermen Post, located on the border of Ingushetia and of North Ossetia, was the venue for solo pickets held by sisters of Akhmed Buzurtanov, a coach from the Ingush Sporting Club "Kaloi", who was kidnapped by identified persons and taken away to unknown place in the evening on December 6 from the village of Maiskoe, Prigorodny District. Earlier, Ingush lawyers had lodged a complaint to the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR), believing that employees of state law enforcement bodies had been involved in kidnapping Buzurtanov; and the ECtHR has already asked the Russian authorities to present information on the case of Akhmed Buzurtanov's kidnapping.

On January 3, the republic celebrated the 70^th anniversary of liberation of the city of Malgobek from Hitlerite troops, which played an important role in protecting the Grozny and Baku oilfields from capturing by the enemy. The festivities included the opening of the monument "To Warrior-Liberator". The struggle for the city claimed 120,000 lives of Soviet soldiers; now, only five participants of those events are alive in Russia. Local experts stressed in their comments that the value of the battle for Malgobek has received its real evaluation only recently.