Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of January 7-13

Tragic accidents with tourists in the mountains of the Caucasus; protest action against non-combat army losses and start of trial of editor-in-chief of the "Tolyshi Sado" in Azerbaijan; launch of top class railway train and awarding the winners of the contest "Civil Society Heroes" in Ingushetia; stop of servicing population by one of major banks of Dagestan; criminal case about bribe-taking initiated against a major official from the Volgograd Region, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of January 7-13, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Accidents with tourists in Caucasian mountains

During the second week of 2013, several messages about accidents with tourists in the mountains arrived from different regions of the Caucasus.

One person died and another one was wounded as a result of an accident with the so-called "zorb" entertainment facility in the area of Dombai in Karachay-Cherkessia on January 3. Tourists from the Stavropol Territory, who were inside a rubber air-pumped sphere, fell running into Gonachkhir Gorge and covered for about a kilometre. The fact became known on January 8, after a video of the tragedy was put on the Internet. Currently, inspectors in Karachay-Cherkessia have opened a criminal case under the article of "rendering services that failed to meet safety regulations and caused heavy health damage or one's death by negligence ". On January 9, the first figurant in the case – the owner of the "zorb" – was detained.

On January 11, Kabardino-Balkaria started searching a group of tourists from Moscow, who made a climb on Mount Elbrus and stopped responding to calls since January 9. On January 12, rescuers found a girl alive at the height of 4800 m. According to her story, another member of the group was a bit higher, without consciousness and, supposedly, with broken lower leg. Earlier, the third tourist of the group had himself refused from the climb. The search of the victim was suspended several times because of unfavourable weather.

Another tragic accident with tourists happened in Georgia. At dawn of January 10, near Gergeti Monastery in the Kazbegi District a group of climbers from the Rostov Region got under an avalanche while trying to climb Mount Kazbek. One tourist was rescued; however, dead bodies of the remaining two were found by rescuers on January 11. The only survival – Maksim Stepanov, 19, – was taken to a local hospital with a wrist cold injury and later was sent to Russia, to a hospital in the city of Volgodonsk.

Azerbaijan: protest action against non-combat army losses and start of trial of editor-in-chief of "Tolyshi Sado"

On January 12, the central Baku was a venue of a more than 90-minute-long confrontation of protesters against non-combat losses in the Azeri Army and the police. The pretext for the protests was in the death of a private Jeikhun Gubadov, who died in the Dashkesan District on January 7. The casualty's relative doubted the conclusions of the examination, according to which Gubadov had died from heart insufficiency. They stated the presence of violence on the boy's body. In the course of the action, the protesters launched scuffles with policemen, who tried to stop them and finally detained about 20 persons – by midnight most of them were released.

On January 9, the Baku Court on Grave Crimes began a trial on the case of Gilal Mamedov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" (Talysh Voice) and a deputy chair of the Talysh Culture Centre, who was detained on June 21, 2012. Mamedov was arrested for alleged illegal storage of narcotic drugs; he also saw charges of treason and kindling interethnic enmity. It is already known that the trial will be partly open. Rights defenders are sure that the criminal case in relation to Mamedov, who is the author of the video clip "Who are you? Well, go, goodbye!", which got into the focus of attention of Russia's mass media and drew attention to the issue of respect of Talyshes' rights in Azerbaijan, was fabricated and politically motivated; they stand in support of the journalist.

Ingushetia: launch of brand train and awarding the winners of the contest "Civil Society Heroes"

On January 10, the first trip of a new brand train "Ingushetia" started from Nazran. On January 12, early in the morning, the train arrived in Moscow. Under the agreement signed on November 1, 2012, by the leader of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov and Mikhail Akulov, Vice-President of the "Russian Railways" and Director General of the Federal Passenger Company, the financial compensation of the cost of the new train will be born by Ingushetia. The train "Ingushetia" is one of the fastest in Russia; and in the near future its 36-hour-long travel will become shorter by six hours. The train will go every other day; its cars are decorated by pictures and patterns on traditional Ingush motives; and the restaurant car offers dishes of the Khalal cuisine to the passengers.

Also on January 10, Nazran hosted a ceremony of awarding the winners of the contest "Civil Society Heroes", founded by the human rights NGO "Mashr". The aim of the contest is to reward the people who have demonstrated their active civil position. The list of this year's winners includes human rights defenders, public activists, state officials, a businessman and a local imam. The ceremony of awarding personal diplomas was attended by Djambulat Ozdoev, the ombudsman for Ingushetia. He thanked the organizers of the event and noted that "contests of this sort are a good tradition."

Dagestan: one of major banks of the region stops serving the population

On January 9, the Dagestani bank "Express" stopped operations with individuals, citing the restriction imposed by the Russia's Central Bank. The bank has noted that the "Express" is a member of the system of deposit insurance, and deposits up to 700,000 roubles will be compensated to the clients. So far, the bank has not reported on where and in what way the clients would get their money, promising to announce it on January 14. No official statements about bankruptcy of the "Express" have been made, said the Agency for Insuring Deposits (AID).

The press service of the "Express" said that until recently the bank work normally and followed all the provisions of the legislation. The "Express" was one of the most successful crediting entities of Dagestan; and it has the largest network of branches and over 200,000 clients (including about 3000 enterprises and organizations). Sources in the Russia's banking sphere believe that that in Dagestan, where within several months three banks (Trust Bank, Transenergobank and "Derbent-Credit") were deprived of their licenses, the crediting institutions became objects of audits in the context of a great number of them there and the region's dependence on federal money.

Volgograd Region: a major regional bureaucrat figures in a bribe-taking criminal case

On January 7, a court of the Volgograd Region ruled to arrest Pavel Krupnov, Deputy Chair of the regional government, who was detained on January 6 under a suspicion of receiving 17 million roubles from an entrepreneur for rendering assistance in contracting on repairing the oncology dispensary. Together with Krupnov, law enforcers detained Igor Pimkin, Director of the State Institution "Directorate for Construction and Overhauls", and his deputy Alexei Kramarenko. On January 10, it became known that Pavel Krupnov was dismissed from his post in the government.

Krupnov himself denies his guilt, stating that the criminal case against him is a provocation undertaken against the Governor of the region Sergey Bozhenov, with whom Krupnov had worked in Astrakhan, where Bozhenov was the Mayor, and Krupnov worked in the port.