News

January 24, 2022 23:58

• Kadyrov creates a threat to Kalyapin and Milashina by accusing them of terrorism

  The allegation of Ramzan Kadyrov, who classified Igor Kalyapin, the head of the “Committee Against Torture”*, and journalist Elena Milashina as terrorists, will not be followed by criminal prosecution of those people, but the risk of unlawful pressure on them has increased, human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina and advocate Marina Dubrovina point out.

January 24, 2022 23:55

• Human rights defender Kalyapin considers it useless to respond to Kadyrov’s accusation

  It is useless to complain about the Ramzan Kadyrov’s allegation that Igor Kalyapin, the head of the “Committee against Torture”*, is an accomplice of terrorists, since the leader of Chechnya always get away with it, the human rights defender explains.

January 24, 2022 23:52

• Video of Zarema Musaeva’s kidnapping posted on Internet

  According to video from surveillance cameras, law enforcers took Zarema Musaeva out of the house entrance without warm clothes. The elderly woman was walking through the snow without shoes, Sergey Babinets, a lawyer of the “Committee Against Torture”*, emphasized.

January 24, 2022 23:49

• On January 17-23, 2022, no one fell victim to armed conflict in Northern Caucasus

  During the week of January 17-23, 2022, no killed or wounded in the ongoing armed conflict in Northern Caucasus were reported. These are the results of the calculations run by the “Caucasian Knot” based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

January 24, 2022 23:47

• Kadyrov demands to detain rights defenders Kalyapin and Milashina

  The head of Chechnya has labelled Igor Kalyapin, a member of the presidential Human Rights Council, and Yelena Milashina, a "Novaya Gazeta" journalist, as terrorists' helpers and called to detain them.

January 24, 2022 23:45

• Blogger Khasan Khalitov's sister humiliated in Chechnya

  Khasan Khalitov, a blogger living in Turkey, has received a photo of his naked sister, who was abducted in Chechnya, accompanied by a demand to stop criticizing Chechen authorities.

January 24, 2022 22:47

• Zarema Musaeva arrested for 15 days in Grozny

  Zarema Musaeva is kept in the special detention centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Chechnya; she was detained because of insulting and attacking a policeman in Grozny. The court arrested her for 15 days, Akhmed Dudaev, the Minister of Information and Press of Chechnya, has informed.

January 24, 2022 20:58

• Absence of contacts with relatives living in Grozny worries Yangulbaev

  After the abduction of Zarema Musaeva, her son, Abubakar Yangulbaev, said that about 15 members of the Yangulbaev and Musaev families living in Grozny have stopped communicating.

January 24, 2022 14:30

• Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of January 18-23, 2022

  Kidnapping of a human rights defender Yangulbaev’s mother by Chechen law enforcers in Nizhny Novgorod; resignation of Armen Sarkisyan from the post of President of Armenia; strike of social workers in Georgia; public outcry after a conflict between a native of Dagestan and passengers of a bus in Moscow; report of the law enforcement bodies about the liquidation of crypto farms in Dagestan, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 18-23, 2022, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

January 24, 2022 11:59

• Saidi Yangulbaev and his daughter leave Russia

  The departure of the former federal judge, Saidi Yangulbaev, and his daughter Aliya from Russia was caused by the threats voiced out by Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, Natalya Kurekina, the press secretary of the "Committee against Torture" (CaT)*, has stated.

January 24, 2022 11:57

• Health condition worsening of Azerbaijani journalist, Polad Aslanov, alarms doctors

  The health condition of the Azerbaijani journalist, Polad Aslanov, who has been on a hunger strike for 18 days, demanding a revision of his case, has sharply worsened, his wife has informed.

January 23, 2022 11:42

• Kadyrov responds to Yangulbaev by accusing his family of complicity in terrorism

  The head of Chechnya has accused the family of the human rights defender, Abubakar Yangulbaev, of organizing an attack on a former Chechen law enforcer in Turkey and calling for terrorism; in his turn, Abubakar has asked the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) to check Kadyrov's threats for extremism.

January 23, 2022 11:31

• Azerbaijani activist's repost in social network causes summons to the GPO

  Ilham Gussein, a member of the Presidium of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), was summoned to the Azeri General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), where he was issued a verbal warning in connection with his publication on the Facebook. The PFPA treats it as pressure on the activist and on the party as a whole.

January 23, 2022 11:15

• Rights defenders demand to protect judge's family from Chechen law enforcers

  The authorities of Chechnya have made kidnappings of the relatives of their opponents a constant practice, but the abduction of Zarema Yangulbaeva is something special, since she is the wife of a retired judge. Federal authorities must interfere, the human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

January 22, 2022 19:14

• Analysts reproach Chechen law enforcers for violating Russian MIA's subordination

  Most likely, law enforcers from Nizhny Novgorod had known about the pre-planned abduction of Zarema Yangulbaeva by Chechen policemen, but they didn't dare to oppose them, since law enforcers in Chechnya, while bypassing Russian laws, obey directly the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and not the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), the human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have noted.

January 22, 2022 19:00

• Krasnodar journalist claims beating up by law enforcers

  Vladislav Kramskoy, a journalist, has stated that he was beaten up by law enforcers after he asked them to show their IDs and introduce themselves. As a result, he not only received traumas, but a protocol was drawn up against him for disobeying a law enforcer's lawful demand.

January 22, 2022 12:53

• Advisor to Dagestani head extradited from Germany to Russia

  German authorities have extradited to Russia Osman Makhachev, who worked as an adviser to the former head of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, and now is accused under the case of a large bribe.

January 22, 2022 12:32

• Rights defenders assess chances for revising Polad Aslanov's verdict

  When considering Polad Aslanov's case at the Supreme Court (SC), the Azeri General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) may advocate for a mitigation of his punishment, but one should not expect the Polad's acquittal, the human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

January 22, 2022 12:16

• Protesters in Tbilisi demand dismissal of Culture Minister

  Teya Tsulukiani, the Georgian Minister of Culture, is firing employees of her subordinate entities who have expressed dissatisfaction with her policies, protesters in Tbilisi have stated, adding that nearly 1500 people signed the petition demanding Tsulukiani's resignation.

January 22, 2022 03:01

• Chechen officials show video with Zarema Yangulbaeva

  In the video clips released by Chechen authorities, Zarema Yangulbaeva, the mother of Abubakar Yangulbaev, a lawyer from the North-Caucasian branch of the "Committee against Torture" (CaT), states that she is being treated well and provided with insulin injections and other necessary medicines.