News

January 18, 2010 21:00

• Dmitri Medvedev orders to be tough in supervising expenditures on Sochi Olympiad

  Today, at the meeting with top managers of the Russian Federation Audit Chamber, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev demanded to be very tough in controlling the expenditures on building the Olympic objects in Sochi.

January 18, 2010 20:00

• Examination proves involvement of "Neva-Express" train explosion figurants in two other terror acts

  The persons who tried to derail the "Neva-Express" train in August 2007 had to do with at least two more explosions in Russia. These are the results of the examination held within the investigation of the criminal case about the terror act and presented in the verdict of the Novgorod Regional Court passed of the train explosion case.

January 18, 2010 19:00

• Special agencies are in search of relatives of Aushev's widow

  Russian special agencies are engaged in searching the four relatives of the widow of the assassinated Ingush oppositionist Maksharip Aushev, who disappeared in the end of last December in St Petersburg. However, so far, nothing is known about their whereabouts, a source in power agencies said.

January 18, 2010 18:00

• Another criminal case initiated against Major Dymovskiy

  As reported by Sergey Kucheruk, head of the GUVD (Interior Department) of the Krasnodar Territory, the second criminal case was opened against former Militia Major from Novorossisk Alexei Dymovskiy; this time, as he said, - under Article 303 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - forgery. Mr Kucheruk gave no details, but promised that more criminal cases will follow.

January 16, 2010 21:00

• Human rights defenders urge Russia's authorities to stop oppressing Jehovah's Witnesses

  Activists of civil society made a statement calling the Russian authorities to stop the practice of persecuting the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses and other "non-title" religious communities in Russia and protect believers against illegal oppressions.

January 16, 2010 20:00

• "Triple" from Belarus refuses to build biathlon complex in Sochi

  The Belarusian Company "Triple" has given up its plans of building a biathlon complex in Sochi for Olympiad-2014. As reported by the "Gazprom" and "Sochi-2014" Organizing Committee, the reason of demarche was Russia's refusal to grant export oil discounts to Belarus.

January 16, 2010 19:51

• Vladikavkaz residents again demand to close "Electrozink"

  Today in Vladikavkaz, members of the initiative group "Electrozink. What do we breathe in?" have held another picket with a demand to decommission the "Electrozink" metallurgy factory.

January 16, 2010 17:00

• MC of Abkhazia refutes forcing Georgians to Abkhazian army

  Vakhtang Tsugba, Military Commissar (MC) of Abkhazia, rejects statements about forced recruitment of young Georgian nationals to the Abkhazian army. This was stated by Mr Tsugba in the context of the information disseminated by Georgian sources that an Abkhazian soldier Lekso Bzhaniya asked for political asylum in Georgia complaining of his violent recruitment.

January 16, 2010 16:00

• Russian Orthodox Church asks not to overblow scandal around slip of tongue on Karabakh

  Hieromonk Phillip (Ryabykh), deputy head of the Department of Foreign Church Relations, believes that the reaction to his words, which caused misunderstanding in Azerbaijan about three temples of the Moscow Patriarchy working in Armenia, including one in Nagorno-Karabakh, is obviously "exaggerated".

January 16, 2010 13:00

• Moscow authorities sanction human rights activists' pickets in memory of Markelov and Baburova

  On Friday, January 15, the Prefecture of the Central Administrative District of Moscow allowed human rights activists to hold two pickets on January 19, the first anniversary of murders of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova.

January 16, 2010 12:00

• Human rights activists state violations of Chechnya residents' rights by GIBDD employees

  Members of Chechen NGOs report violations of citizens' rights and facts of extortion by employees of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate (known in Russia as "GIBDD"). They note that the problem is especially topical at the road police posts located in the administrative borders with Ossetia and Dagestan.

January 16, 2010 11:00

• Azerbaijani embassy to Russia is dissatisfied with Zhirinovsky's statement on Karabakh

  As reported by Elkhan Polukhov, press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan, the embassy of Azerbaijan to Russia has sent a note of protest to Russia's MFA in the context of the statement made by the vice-speaker of the State Duma Vladimir Zhirinovsky about possible recognition by Moscow of independence of Nagorno-Karabakh.

January 16, 2010 10:00

• Dudaev Street in Riga to be renamed this year

  The street named in honour of Dzhokhar Dudaev in Riga will be renamed in 2010, said Nil Ushakov, Mayor of the Latvian capital. In his opinion, the street should bear a neutral name.

January 16, 2010 09:00

• Dutch Internet edition sacks journalist for refusal to admit Armenians' genocide

  The Dutch Internet edition named "De Dagelijksestandaard" has dismissed one of its journalists for denying the fact of the genocide of Armenians by Ottoman Turkey and for his qualification of 1915 events as deportation.

January 15, 2010 23:30

• Jehovah's Witnesses prepare complaint to Strasbourg against judicial bans in SFD

  A suit to be lodged to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the context of a breach of the Constitution of the Russian Federation as regards the freedom of worship. The pretext was the oppression of Jehovah's Witnesses by law enforcement bodies of the South federal District (SFD). This was stated by Gregory Martynov, press secretary of the administrative centre of this religious organization.

January 15, 2010 23:20

• US and Norwegian embassies demand investigation of attack on their diplomats in Nakhichevan

  On Thursday, January 14, the embassies of the USA and Norway in Baku made a joint statement in the context of the incident with their employees on January 12 in the village of Bananyar, Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR) of Azerbaijan.

January 15, 2010 23:10

• Intigam Aliev: the civil society of Azerbaijan should rely on its own forces

  On January 14, the Coalition in Support of Civil Society in Azerbaijan held debates in the office of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) on the problems of NGOs. The debate points were in the problems of NGO registration and the latest changes in the legislation, enabling to restrain the activity of the civil society. According to Intigam Aliev, chairman of the Society of Legal Education, the civil society of Azerbaijan, actually deprived of any international support, should rely on its own forces.

January 15, 2010 23:00

• Karabakh and Azerbaijani historians differently view Armenian pogroms in Baku in 1990

  Armenian pogroms in Baku in January 1990 are among most convincing arguments of impossibility for Nagorno-Karabakh to be a part of Azerbaijan. This is stated in the comment of the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nagorno-Karabakh on the 20th anniversary of these events, which deserve, in the opinion of Irina Grigoryan, head of the Stepanakert Resource Centre, their official estimation. Azerbaijanis believe that Armenian pogroms in Baku were provoked by Soviet special agencies.

January 15, 2010 22:00

• Makhachkala residents are angry with power agents blocking central streets

  Today, the centre of Makhachkala is again blocked by KamAZ trucks; traffic is absolutely blocked in the vicinity of the central square, which houses the buildings of the President's Administration and the Government of Dagestan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB and the Supreme Court of the republic.

January 15, 2010 21:00

• Figurants in the case of "Neva-Express" explosion in 2007 acquitted from charge of terrorism

  Residents of Ingushetia Salambek Dzakhkiev and Maksharip Khidriev, accused of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train in 2007, have been acquitted under the article of "terrorism". The court found them guilty of illegal circulation of explosives.