Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of February 4-10

Pre-election situation in Armenia: presidential candidates hold hunger strikes, refuse to take part in the election and try to delay it; non-sanctioned action of nationalists in Stavropol that ended with mass detentions; Putin's inspection of Olympic sites of Sochi that revealed breaks of deadlines of certain objects; resignation of Mayor of Maikop Mikhail Chernichenko, who moved to the post of advisor to the head of Adygea, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of February 4-10, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Armenia: presidential candidates hold hunger strikes, refuse to run for the post and try to postpone the voting day

On February 10, the Constitutional Court of Armenia received an application on postponement of the presidential election appointed on February 18, submitted on behalf of Paruir Airikyan, the leader of the Association "National Self-Determination"; on January 31, a murder attempt was committed against him. Earlier, the candidate Airikyan stated that he would apply for delay of the election, which is assumed by Article 52 of the Constitution of Armenia, after his health condition became worse. According to Airikyan, he wanted to postpone the election in order to have a chance to hold a full-fledged agitation campaign. He did not exclude that in case an agreement was reached about nomination of the united oppositional candidate he would recall his application. A day before that, Airikyan called Raffi Ovannisyan, the leader of the "Heritage" Party, and Grant Bagratyan, the leader of the "Freedom" Party, to get united and nominate a single candidate in case the election was postponed by two weeks.

On February 6, the state of health of Andreas Gukasyan, another presidential candidate and the leader of the "Radio-I", got worse. Starting January 21, he keeps a hunger strike in front of the National Academy of Sciences with a demand to cancel the registration of Serzh Sargsyan, the incumbent President of Armenia, as a presidential candidate. On February 8, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Armenia called the politician to give up his hunger strikes, On February 9, the same appeal was made by the Ministry of Public Health of Armenia, which called Gukasyan to undergo a comprehensive health examination in specialized conditions. However, so far, the candidate intends to go on with his protest action.

The number of candidates on ballot papers (now there are eight candidates on them) may still shrink, on February 8, Aram Arutyunyan, a presidential candidate from the "National Accord" Party lodged his self-recall application to the CEC. A day before he had been on hunger strike, saying that he would like to bring the information about non-legitimate status of the election to broad public.

Both experts and local residents agree that the outcomes of the presidential election in Armenia are foredoomed. Last week, this was confirmed by the announced results of public polls on the upcoming election. On February 5, The results of the poll held by the All-Russian Public Opinion Poll Centre (known as WCIOM) were announced; and on February – by the Gallup International and Sociological Centre named "Sociometer". All the results were close: the incumbent Serzh Sargsyan was in the lead (over 60% of votes); while Raffi Ovannisyan was the runner-up (from 21% to 27%). In all the polls, Paruir Airikyan was in the third place with 5-7% of potential votes.

Non-sanctioned action of nationalists in Stavropol

At night on February 7, at the "Moscow" Trade Centre, close to a night club in Stavropol, a brawl of nine persons burst out. According to the police, the conflict was triggered by natives and locals. Maxim Spasibov, a Cossack of 27, received a knife wound. By the morning of February 8, the police managed to detain the main suspect, and then – two more supposed participants of the mass brawl.

On February 9, at their non-sanctioned action, nationalists demanded to address the problem of "ethnic criminality" in the region, severe punishment of those who attacked Spasibov and release of two citizens of Ukraine kept in the isolation facility of the MIA division for the city of Nevinnomysk. The action was about 80 persons strong; 54 of them were detained, and two were administratively punished for organization of a non-sanctioned mass event.

It is noteworthy that several day before activists of the regional branch of the non-registered party "Novaya Sila" (New Force) announced a start of an Internet action aimed at gathering signatures for separation of the Stavropol Territory from the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), and in favour of introduction of a special migration regime for residents of the republics-members of the NCFD. On February 8, they tried to present an Internet project "Stavropol Territory is not Caucasus" for mass media; however, the event failed because of a fire in the conference hall. Party activists believe that it was a provocation; while the regional government found the applied initiatives as non-serious.

Putin's inspection of Olympic construction in Sochi reveals delay in building certain facilities

On February 6, the objects of the Winter Olympiad-2014 in Sochi were examined by President of Russia Vladimir Putin. It turned out that about 70 out of 400 scheduled objects are behind the schedule; the most serious claims were addressed to the complex of ski-jumps "Russian Hills" in Krasnaya Polyana, which are more than two years behind the schedule. After making the inspection, Putin assured the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the final stage of preparation of the Olympiad would be under the most attentive supervision of Russian authorities. He explained that he had inspected the objects prior the meeting; and his talk to some bureaucrats was tough.

One of such bureaucrats punished after Putin's visit to Sochi was Akhmed Bilalov, President of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Resorts of Northern Caucasus", who was also a Vice-President of the Russia's Olympic Committee in charge of supervising the "Russian Hills". On February 7, Russian Vice-Premier Dmitry Kozak said that Putin ordered to dismiss Bilalov from all his posts for the construction delay and a several-fold exceeding the budget. Bilalov himself made no official comments to the criticism, but wrote in his page in the Facebook that "the ski-jumps in Sochi are so far the only Olympic object that has a certificate of the International Ski Federation (FIS)." Observers saw some political context in claims to Bilalov.

On the day of Vladimir Putin's visit to Sochi it became known that the Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed its concern about exploitation of labour migrants at Sochi constructions and violation of their rights. In its report the HRW called the IOC to promote the observance of migrants' rights at construction of Olympic facilities. In response, officials of the Russian government and Sochi administration stated that there are no violations of rights of labour migrants at the construction of Olympic facilities.

Resignation of Mayor of Maikop Mikhail Chernichenko

On February 4, it became known that the Mayor of Maikop Mikhail Chernichenko decided to resign on his own will. On that very day a sitting of the Presidium of the Soviet of People's Deputies of the capital of Adygea considered the Mayor's petition. Making his comment, Chernichenko called his decision to be "absolutely properly weighted" and said that the city is interested in an advent of young people for continuing the creative activities. On February 6, an extraordinary session of the City Soviet of Maikop accepted the voluntary resignation of Mikhail Chernichenko. Until the new election Alexander Narolin, the head of the third inter-district tax inspectorate of Adygea, will be the acting head of the city. Chernichenko moved to the post of an advisor to the head of Adygea Aslan Tkhakushinov.