News

May 28, 2011 12:30

• Dagestan natives get lost in Tyumen Region

  Asiyat (Julia) Babaeva, a resident of the town of Raduzhnoe, Tyumen Region, informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that her husband Umalat Babaev, a native of Dagestan, from yesterday did not answer telephone calls; and his whereabouts are unknown. Along with him, Samur Kurbanov, a friend of the family, also disappeared.

May 28, 2011 09:00

• Nikol Pashinyan amnestied in Armenia

  As reported by Arsen Babayan, press secretary of the Criminal-Executive Department of the Armenian Ministry of Justice, Nikol Pashinyan, a supporter of the Armenian opposition and editor-in-chief of the "Aikakan Zhamanak", was released under the May 27 amnesty.

May 27, 2011 23:50

• Norwegian rights defenders urge Prince Hokon not to visit Baku

  Leaders of three Norwegian human rights organizations - the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Rafto Foundation and the Foundation for the Human Rights House - sent a letter to the Norwegian Crown Prince Hokon Magnus asking him to abandon his trip to Azerbaijan to participate in the International Exhibition and Conference "Caspian Oil and Gas" to be held on June 6-7 in Baku. According to human rights advocates, by his visit Prince Hokon will express "undeserved recognition of President Aliev's regime."

May 27, 2011 23:40

• Complaint of 75 Chechen victims of 1999 bombing sent to ECtHR

  The complaint, prepared by the Committee Against Torture, was forwarded to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg on behalf of 75 applicants from Chechnya. They include both close relatives of the casualties and the persons who were seriously injured as a result of the missile attack and bombing of the village of Elistanzhi, Vedeno District of the Chechen Republic, by Russian Air Forces on October 7, 1999.

May 27, 2011 23:30

• Einullah Fatullaev plans to continue his journalism

  The Azerbaijani journalist Einullah Fatullaev, who spent over 4 years in prison, and who was released on May 26, intends to continue his professional activities.

May 27, 2011 23:00

• USA and EU justify dispersal of opposition rally in Georgia

  The Ambassadors to Georgia of the United States and the European Union - John Bass and Philip Dimitrov, respectively, - believe that the crackdown at night on May 26 of the unsanctioned rally of the "People's Assembly" was carried out legally; however, riot policemen were applying disproportionate force to the situation.

May 27, 2011 22:50

• Resident of Dagestan turns for help to adaptation commission

  Today, Sergey Evloev, 19, a resident of Makhachkala, who had stated earlier that he was abducted by local law enforcers, turned for help to the commission under the President of Dagestan engaged in assisting the persons, who have decided to stop their terrorist and extremist activities, in adapting to peaceful life.

May 27, 2011 22:40

• Dudieva: poet Dzhigkaev was killed for his poem

  Susanna Dudieva, leader of the "Beslan Mothers", has moved a version that the murder of the National Poet of North Ossetia-Alania Shamil Dzhigkaev was caused by his poem critical of pilgrims from Chechnya and Ingushetia. However, the Ingush authorities called on not to make hasty conclusions.

May 27, 2011 22:30

• Opposition activist Sasun Mikaelyan is at large in Armenia

  Today, on May 27, Sasun Mikaelyan, one of the most famous commanders of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, was set free from the penal institution "Prisoners' Hospital".

May 27, 2011 20:00

• Mayor's office of Krasnodar refused permission of a picket in defense of convicted human rights activist Pavel Cherevatov

  A non-governmental organization "Grass Roots" filed an application of holding a picket in defense of convicted human rights activist Pavel Cherevatov in Krasnodar. The Mayor's office refused granting the application. The organizers consider this refusal groundless and do not give up their plans of holding the action of protest.

May 27, 2011 19:00

• Minister of Public Health of North Osetia accused of misappropriation of budgetary funds

  According to the version of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Minister of Public Health of North Osetia has inflicted damage on the budget to a sum of one million rubles.

May 27, 2011 18:00

• Gachechiladze: there are more victims of dispersal of the meeting than officially reported

  One of the leaders of the "Georgian Party" Levan Gachechiladze is sure that there were much more victims of the dispersal of the oppositionists' meeting in Tbilisi than it was officially reported.

May 26, 2011 23:30

• Rostov-on-Don to hold flash mob on smoking-quitting day

  On May 31 - the Day of Smoking-Quitting - activists of the "Young Guard" will appear in gas masks and offer all the wishing volunteers to give blood samples for determination of the level of carbon monoxide (CO) in the organism.

May 26, 2011 23:10

• In Rostov-on-Don, court obliges city administration to sanction "Strategy-31" rally

  The Pervomaiskiy District Court has ordered the city administration of Rostov-on-Don to sanction the "Strategy-31" action in defence of Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which stipulates the freedom of assembly, in those months as the applicants will indicate. According to the organizer of this rally Pavel Nagibin, the court has consistently recognized the unlawfulness of the refusal by the city administration to sanction the "Strategy-31" rallies on October 31, 2010, and January 31 this year.

May 26, 2011 23:00

• States ready to pay USD 5M for information on Dokku Umarov's whereabouts

  The United States, which had earlier put Dokku Umarov, leader of "Imarat Kavkaz", on the list of international terrorists, are ready to pay remuneration of five million US dollars for information about his whereabouts, says the joint Russian-American declaration on combating terrorism.

May 26, 2011 22:40

• Armenian Parliament supports amnesty

  The Armenian National Assembly has approved the draft law "On Amnesty", initiated by the President of the country Serzh Sargsyan, when 91 MPs voted for it, and one MP abstained. The amnesty was announced in connection with the 20th anniversary of independence of the Republic of Armenia to be marked on September 21.

May 26, 2011 22:30

• HRW and RWB condemn Georgian authorities for dispersing oppositional rally

  The international organizations Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Reporters Without Borders (RWB) have treated the force used by Georgian police to disperse the demonstration in Tbilisi as excessive and disproportionate.

May 26, 2011 22:20

• Journalist Einullah Fatullaev pardoned in Azerbaijan

  Today Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev signed an order today to pardon 89 prisoners; among those pardoned is Einullah Fatullaev, editor-in-chief and founder of the newspapers "Real Azerbaijan" and "Daily Azerbaijan.

May 26, 2011 22:10

• Consideration of Dudko's case to continue on June 1

  As ruled by Judge Natalia Larina, the trial of blogger Alexei Dudko would continue at the Taganka District Court in Moscow on June 1.

May 26, 2011 22:00

• Georgian police detained Burjanadze's fellow-fighters for accusation of the loss of two people

  Two members of ex-Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Nino Burjanadze's "Democratic Movement - United Georgia" were detained by Georgian police for accusation of actions which resulted in the death of people.