Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of September 9-15

Summing up the results of elections, held on September 8 in Southern Russia; killing at Sukhumi of Russian diplomat; investigators' statement about new criminal case against Mayor of Makhachkala Said Amirov, – look these and other events in the Caucasus in the review of the week of September 9-15, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

South Russia sums up the elections held on September 8

Last week summed up the outcomes of the elections held in various regions of Russia on September 8. The members of regional parliaments were elected by residents of Chechnya, Rostov Region and Kalmykia. In Volgograd and Maikop, deputies of city representative bodies were elected. Virtually all these elections were accompanied by allegations of numerous violations.

According to the election results in the Rostov Region, the majority of seats (52) in the Legislative Assembly of the Region were won by candidates from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party; six seats went to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), and two – to the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia). On September 11, the leaders of the Russian State Duma factions of the LDPR (Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia), CPRF and "Spravedlivaya Rossiya", respectively Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Gennady Zyuganov and Sergey Mironov, submitted an appeal to Vladimir Churov, the chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC), where they declared their non-recognition of the election results in the Kemerovo and Rostov Regions and demanded the recount the ballots.

On September 12, the results of the elections of Deputies of the People's Great Hural (Parliament) of the fifth convocation of the Republic of Kalmykia were announced. Most of the mandates – 18 – were won by the "Edinaya Rossiya" Party. The Kalmyk Branch of the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" demanded to cancel the election results in a number of constituencies.

By the outcomes of the elections in Volgograd, candidates from the "Edinaya Russia" Party received 33 out of 48 seats in the City Duma of Volgograd. The CPRF received six seats; and the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" – five seats. On September 9, members of five parties demanded resignation of the Regional Governor Sergey Bozhenov and invalidate the elections to the Volgograd City Duma. On September 10, members of the Stalingrad Regional Committee of the CPRF decided to hold an endless protest action in the mini-park located opposite the Regional Government.

Abkhazia: employee of Russian Embassy assassinated in Sukhumi

On September 9 in the morning, the vice-consul Dmitry Vishernev, the first secretary of the Russian Embassy to Abkhazia, was shot dead in Sukhumi. He was attacked when he was driving in his service car out of the garage next to the house, which he rented the apartment. His wife Olga, who was with him, was heavily wounded, and on September 14 she died in hospital. In Abkhazia, the gunman is searched with the help of an identikit and verbal description. A special interdepartmental operative commission was set up for investigating the murder. Vishernev participated in the commission for protecting the property rights of Abkhazia's residents, where he was engaged in settling real estate disputes; and his murder may have to do with one of these disputes, the local law enforcers assert.

KBR: end of prosecution's presentation at the trial on attack on Nalchik and resignation of republic's Premier

On September 12, the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), which considers the case of the attack on Nalchik, committed on October 13, 2005, the state prosecution voiced out the sentences demanded for the defendants. Life imprisonment was claimed for seven of them. The prosecutor asked to release three defendants from further punishment and demanded prison terms from 11 to 23 years for the rest of them. At the court session held on September 10 the state prosecutor stressed that the defendants were members of one criminal association, which aimed to overthrow the political system and establish a Sharia state. Their actions were qualified under several articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, including participation in an armed rebellion, commission of terror acts and murder of two or more persons.

KBR dismisses its Prime Minister

On September 9, the Prime Minister of Kabardino-Balkaria Ruslan Khasanov was officially relieved of his duties. No reasons for the resignation were specified. In their comments on Khasanov's dismissal, local observers named the economic stagnation among other problems of the republic. It is noteworthy that on September 13, the "Rosstat" (Russian Statistics Committee) released the basic results of socio-economic status of Russia's subjects for the first half of 2013, according to which the KBR fixed the record-greatest decline in industrial production, drop of investments and a huge increase in inflation.

Dagestan: investigators open new criminal case against Mayor of Makhachkala Said Amirov

On September 10, the investigative authorities of the Russian Federation reported that Said Amirov, the Mayor of Makhachkala, who was removed from his post by court ruling and is kept under arrest in Moscow under suspicion of involvement in the murder of an investigator in Dagestan, is also suspected, together with Magomed Abdulgalimov, a former Assistant of Prosecutor of Khasavyurt, and Yusup Djaparov, a deputy head of Kaspiisk, of preparing a terror act by means of an anti-aircraft missile system. On the same day a search was conducted in the apartment Said Amirov's son Magomed Amirov. Said Amirov himself refuses to testify, said his lawyer Mark Kruter.