News

January 18, 2025 22:39

• Father of Sochi engineer Alexei Schus is stunned by his son's sentence

  A court in Sochi has found Alexei Schus, an engineer, guilty of spreading fake news about the Russian Army motivated by hatred and sentenced him to 5.5 years in colony. He was also banned from administering websites for three years, the human rights project "OVD-Info"* has reported.

January 18, 2025 22:14

• Rights defender Nagavkin asks Putin to send colony inmates to Anapa

  In a letter to the Russian President, Igor Nagavkin, a convicted human rights defender, has offered to involve prisoners from the penal colonies in the liquidation of the environmental disaster in Kuban (the Krasnodar Territory) and expressed his desire to go to Anapa; he himself has expressed his readiness to take part in cleaning the beaches voluntarily and free of charge.

January 18, 2025 20:38

• In Tbilisi, march participants demand to release Mziya Amaglobeli

  On the 50th day of protests against the suspension of Georgia’s European integration, activists demanded to provide them with airtime on the “Georgian Public Broadcaster” Radio and TV Company to talk about the circumstances of the detention and arrest of Mziya Amaglobeli, the founder of the “Batumelebi” and “Netgazeti” online publications.

January 18, 2025 18:17

• Analysts: abnormal birth rate in Chechnya on December 31 could be provoked by manipulations

  In order to receive the payment promised by the leader of Chechnya for naming newborns after national heroes, pregnant women could resort to labour stimulation or caesarean section, as well as manipulation of the birth date. The abnormal number of boys born on December 31 confirms the above assumptions, analysts believe.

January 17, 2025 23:59

• Rights defenders comment on report about "exchange fund" of volunteers in Chechnya

  In Chechnya, people are forced to sign contracts, while law enforcers may set up a so-called "exchange fund" of volunteers from other regions who have arrived in the republic and will sign contracts (with the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD)) instead of local residents, human rights defenders believe.

January 17, 2025 23:58

• Human rights defender complains about not being allowed to visit Nagavkin in penal colony

  The chief of the penal colony in Uryupinsk did not allow human rights defender Valentin Bogdan, who defends his colleague, to visit Igor Nagavkin. Valentin Bogdan called the actions of the penal colony chief unlawful and lodged a complaint with the prosecutor’s office.

January 17, 2025 23:18

• Human rights defenders point to political motives for founder of Georgian opposition media Amaglobeli’s arrest

  The “Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association” (GYLA) non-governmental organization (NGO) has called the arrest of Mziya Amaglobeli, the founder of the “Netgazeti” and “Batumelebi” online publications, politically motivated.

January 17, 2025 21:49

• Zhuravel appeals against verdict in his treason case

  The Sochi Court of Appeal has scheduled a hearing on the appeal complaint against Nikita Zhuravel's verdict in the treason case for February 18, 2025, the BFM (Russian Business FM News) has reported.

January 17, 2025 21:22

• Attempts to sign contracts in Chechnya bring some volunteers into dungeon

  Volunteers from all over Russia who have arrived in Chechnya to sign military contracts have complained that they are kept locked up for weeks in order to be sent to the combat zone instead of the local residents who had paid their way out of service.

January 17, 2025 20:45

• Rostov human rights defender fined for his post in social media

  A court in Rostov-on-Don has fined Rostislav Pavlischev by 10,000 roubles, after treating his post placed in a social network as participation in the activities of an undesirable organization. This was reported by the human rights project "OVD-Info"*.

January 16, 2025 22:48

• Contract soldier's complaint about absence of medical treatment in Chechnya attracts investigators' attention

  Investigators and prosecutors have questioned the military, who had complained that he was discharged from a hospital in Chechnya, although he failed to receive the proper treatment. According to lawyers, doctors had violated his rights.

January 16, 2025 20:09

• Azeri rights defenders note increased repressions in their country

  In 2024, Azerbaijan saw increased repressions against journalists, human rights defenders and believers; and the number of political prisoners increased sharply. The police began using harsher measures in conducting repressions.

January 15, 2025 23:42

• Defence: court pronounces too harsh verdict against Boris Goncharenko in case on arson of military registration and enlistment office

  Bogdan Abdurakhmanov and Boris Goncharenko did not agree with the classification of the case and asked the court to impose a fair sentence in the case on the arson of the military registration and enlistment office in the city of Goryachy Klyuch. The verdict, according to which Boris Goncharenko was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, will be challenged.

January 15, 2025 22:53

• Kadyrov’s action results in demographic phenomenon

  Ramzan Kadyrov instructed the republic’s authorities to pay 500,000 roubles to parents of each boy born on December 31 and named in honour of national heroes. At the same time, it turned out that on the day of the action, four times more boys were unexpectedly born in the republic than on other days.

January 15, 2025 21:57

• Rights defenders call for immediate release of detained Georgian protesters

  The Amnesty International (AI) human rights organization has stated that all those detained in Georgia for peacefully exercising their rights to the freedom of speech and assembly must be immediately released.

January 15, 2025 21:40

• Karabakh NGOs demand to release Armenian POWs kept in Azerbaijan

  Karabakh nongovernmental organization (NGOs) and the "Dashnaktsutyun" Party have appealed to Armenian authorities and the international community with a demand to protect the rights of the Armenian prisoners of war kept in Azerbaijan and take measures for the release of them.

January 14, 2025 22:31

• Krasnodar resident fined three times for discrediting Russian Army

  In Krasnodar, a court fined local resident Inna Tishkina three times, finding her guilty in three cases on discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.

January 14, 2025 21:18

• Ombudsperson demands investigation of law enforcers’ actions during detentions in Batumi

  Three out of the ten people detained at the protest action in Batumi demanded an investigation into the law enforcers’ actions, and one of the detainees claimed being beaten. A criminal case has been instituted against Mziya Amaglobeli, the founder of the “Batumelebi” and “Netgazeti” online publications for attacking a police officer.

January 14, 2025 20:58

• Social network users treat campaign against car window tinting in Chechnya as election campaign

  The ban on car window tinting in Chechnya fails to cover the head of the republic himself and his close associates, commentators have pointed out.

January 13, 2025 23:21

• Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of January 6-12, 2025

  Zaira Pirova’s escape, pollution in Anapa, drone attacks, persecution of pacifists and activists in Southern Russia, protests in Georgia, and official data on the natives of Southern Russia who perished in Ukraine, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 6-12, 2025, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.