Week in the Caucasus: review of main events on November 11-17

Detention of Mikhail Stolyarov, Mayor of Astrakhan, on suspicion of bribe-taking; entrance of Georgy Margvelashvily into the post of President of Georgia; special operation in Dagestan, which resulted, according to power agents, in the murder of Dmitry Sokolov, who was involved in the terror act in Volgograd; dissolution of the jury on Anna Politkovskaya murder trial; and sentence to four natives of Ingushetia in connection with the terror act in Domodedovo, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of November 11-17, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Mayor of Astrakhan Mikhail Stolyarov arrested on suspicion of bribe-taking

On November 13, Mayor of Astrakhan Mikhail Stolyarov was detained by law enforcers. As explained by the spokesman of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), he was detained in a restaurant, when receiving a bribe from a local businessman in the amount of 10 million roubles. In Moscow, where Stolyarov was convoyed, the court ruled to put him in custody till January 13. During the court session the Mayor said he had no objections to his arrest. On November 14, the City Duma of Astrakhan refused to consider the appointment of an acting Mayor; it was explained by Kanat Shantimirov, the head of the administration of the Governor of the Astrakhan Region, that, according to the City Charter, the decision to appoint an acting Mayor can be made by the Mayor himself. On November 15, it was announced that Mikhail Stolyarov appointed Irina Egorova, the Head of the Legal Department of the administration of Astrakhan, to be the acting Mayor.

Georgia: Margvelashvily takes office as President

In the afternoon on November 17, in the yard of the old building of the Parliament, located Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi, Georgy Margvelashvily was inaugurated as President of Georgia. The ceremony was attended by guests from around the world, and members of the Georgian Government and Parliament. On the other hand, on that very day, activists of the oppositional Labour Party of Georgia staged a protest at the walls of the building where the inauguration took place, alleging that the presidential election on October 27 was falsified. Immediately after the inauguration, the Georgian Government, led by Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, returned all the seats.

Dagestan: power agents report death of organizer of Volgograd terror act in special operation near Makhachkala

At night on November 16, in the Dagestani township of Semender, a suburb of Makhachkala, a counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was introduced. Law enforcers blocked one of the houses, from which at dawn a young woman with a baby was evacuated. Five persons who hid in the house were killed during the operation; according to power agents, one of them was Dmitry Sokolov, who was involved in the bus explosion on October 21 in Volgograd, a common-law husband of the female suicide bomber. According to the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) of Russia, in the negotiations, where, in particular, his mother was involved, Sokolov confessed of preparing the terror act in Volgograd. The casualties will be finally identified with the help of the genetic examination.

Selection of new jury appointed in Politkovskaya murder case

On November 14, the Moscow City Court (MCC) disbanded the jury that had considered the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, an observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper; four natives of Chechnya and a former Moscow militiaman are the figurants of the case. The reason for disbanding was in the drop-out of five jurors at once. All of them indicated in their applications illness or family circumstances as their arguments for dismissal. The selection of a new jury was appointed on January 14, 2014. Two days earlier, on November 12, the court left the accused in custody for other three months – until February 21, 2014.

Moscow court sentences four natives of Ingushetia for terror act in Domodedovo

On November 11, three of the defendants in the case on the terror act, committed in January 2011 in the Moscow Domodedovo Airport, namely, the brothers Islam and Ilez Yandiev and Bashir Khamkhoev – were sentenced by the Moscow Regional Court to life imprisonment in a special security colony. The fourth defendant, Akhmed Evloev, was sentenced to 10 years in a general security colony. The defendants refused to plead guilty; and after sentencing the official representative of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) said that investigators continued searching for the customers and organizers of the terror act in Domodedovo.