Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of March 18-24

Election of Anapa Mayor; three-day-long special operation near Makhachkala; reconsideration by court in Moscow of Budanov's murder case; end of receiving nominees from political forces of Armenia for the Board of Elders of Yerevan; dismissal by court in Stavropol of the lawsuit against the ban on hijabs in schools; adoption of law on possible cancellation by regions of direct elections of governors, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of March 18-24, 2013, prepared by the "CaucasianKnot".

Krasnodar Territory: Anapa elects city Mayor

March 24 was the voting day for the Anapa Mayor; the post became vacant after the former Mayor Tatiana Evsikova resigned for health reasons in December 2012. Ten candidates ran for the post.

Activists of the "Yabloko" Party have already stated numerous violations in the course of the elections and their intention to demand from the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Russian federation to nullify the outcomes of the voting. In particular, the Krasnodar branch of the "Yabloko" believes that the road accident near the village of Sukko, because of which in the morning on March 24 the highway to Anapa was blocked, and about one hundred observers could not get to their polling stations by the opening hour, was staged. Besides, Sergey Mitrokhin, Chairman of the "Yabloko" Party, on the voting day was poured over with some unknown liquid, supposedly with brilliant green at one of the polling stations in Anapa. Activists of the association "Vote" have reported a throw-in of ballots and non-admission of observers to polling stations as the main types of violations at the election. Messages about violations were received in the course of voting; then, the information arrived about beatings of "Yabloko" observers in the course of vote tabulation. According to the Territorial Election Commission (TEC), the election met the provisions of the legislation.

In total, under preliminary data of the TEC, the current winner is Sergey Sergeyev, the candidate of the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia), with 83.98% of total votes. The runner-up is Victor Tyurin from the CPRF with a bit more than 4% of votes, followed by Alexei Egorov from the "Yabloko" supported by 3.52% of the voters; the remaining seven candidates are under 2% of votes each.

According to the TEC, the voter turnout was above 34%.

Dagestan: seven persons killed in three-day-long special operation near Makhachkala

In the morning on March 20, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was announced in the township of Semender, located in the suburb of Makhachkala. Power agents blocked a house, where – according to their information – members of illegal armed formations (IAFs) were hiding. In the evening on March 20, law enforcers began storming the house, which was completely ruined in the course of the special operation. According to the police, the IAF members hid in a bunker built under the house. The shooting continued on March 22. As of March 23, bodies of five supposed militants were found in the place of the special operation. In the course of the fights two special police agents were lost and six more wounded. The CTO regime was lifted in the evening on March 23.

The special operation was accompanied on March 20 by a protest action, organized by relatives of Magomedkhabib Magomedaliev, the chairman of the district assembly of the Untsukul District of Dagestan, who was blocked by power agents in his house. Until now, his relatives cannot find him. On March 21, a source of the "Caucasian Knot" said that most probably, Magomedaliev is among the casualties and explained that Magomedaliev had been suspected by power agencies of being associated with the armed underground; however, his guilt was not proved.

Moscow courts starts reconsideration of Budanov's murder

The case is considered for the second time: the ex-Colonel Yuri Budanov had been convicted for abducting and killing the Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva and was shot dead on June 10, 2011, in Moscow. A suspect of committing the murder is Yusup Temerkhanov, a native of Chechnya, who would not plead guilty. On February 13, the panel of jurymen was dissolved under petition of the prosecution; and on March 18, the Moscow City Court formed a new jury. On March 19, the prosecution announced the proofs of the defendant's guilt. Experts evidenced to the court and confirmed the conclusion of the examinations. In particular, one of them said that Temerkhanov's genotype was found on the items from the car that took away Yuri Budanov's killer.

Armenia: six parties and a political bloc run for Board of Elders of Yerevan

On March 21, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Armenia stopped receiving applications from candidates to the Board of Elders of Yerevan; the elections are scheduled for May 5. By the outcomes thereof, No. 1 on the proportional list of the winning party or bloc will be the city Mayor. The proportional lists have been submitted by six parties – the Republican Party of Armenia, the "Rule of Law Country", the "Prosperous Armenia", the "Armenian National Congress" (ANC), "Dashnaktsutyun", the "Mission" – and one political bloc "Hello, Yerevan", organized by the "Heritage" Party jointly with the "Democratic Way" Party and the Workers' Socialist Party of Armenia. Political experts have no doubt that the ruling Republican Party will win; however, they still believe that the upcoming election will be more interesting than the presidential one, while a real political struggle can be expected after the inauguration of the president.

Stavropol Territory: court dismisses suit against ban on hijabs in schools

On March 22, the Stavropol Territorial Court dismissed the lawsuit lodged by the lawyer Murad Musaev, who represented the interests of a group of Muslims from the eastern districts of the territory who insisted on the right of Muslim women to cover all part of body except face and wrists, against the resolution of the territorial government to introduce the school uniform and ban hijabs. The final session on the case lasted for more than three hours; and, finally, the judge ruled to dismiss the claim. Musaev said that he would appeal against the ruling of the Stavropol Territorial Court at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Russian State Duma allows regions to cancel direct elections of governors

This week, the MPs of the Russian Stare Duma have adopted – in the second and the final third readings the bill that vests the regions with the power to define the procedure of electing their governors. It passed its first reading on January 23. At the March 22 session, the bill was supported in the third reading by 305 MPs. Now, according to the new law, should a region prefer to give up the procedure of direct election, then the political parties presented in the regional and federal parliaments will get the right to nominate three candidates for the governor each to Russian President. The latter selects three of them and directs them to the consideration of the regional parliament for the latter to make the final choice. The law was adopted with the specificities of Northern Caucasus in mind, as Igor Lebedev, the Vice-Speaker of the State Duma from the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and one of the initiators of the bill, has explained.

Cancellation of direct elections of governors was supported by the head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov, who believes that it is economically profitable for the country if the President elected by people appoints heads of Russian regions. Rizvan Kurbanov, the former Vice-Premier of Dagestan, also believes that for most of the subjects direct elections are the best form of electing the regional leader; while the bill that allows regions to decide on the election procedure by themselves aims at taking into account the opinion of small national minorities. This opinion is not shared by the activists of the regional public movement "Mekhk-Kkhel", who collected signatures asking Vladimir Putin not to sign the bill. According to the poll conducted this February by the "Centre of Caucasian Initiative" and the "Dosh" magazine, residents of Ingushetia, Dagestan, Chechnya and Kabardino-Balkaria had supported the nationwide elections of the heads of their republics.