News

February 19, 2021 08:34

• Shevchenko treats four years of conditional imprisonment as severe sentence

  The court has appointed a milder sentence than the prosecution demanded, but the conditional imprisonment also implies a number of restrictions, Anastasia Shevchenko, an activist, has stated.

February 19, 2021 08:22

• ECtHR obliges Azerbaijani authorities to pay compensations to two activists

  The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has upheld the complaints of Mamed Azizov and Shakhin Novruzlu, activists of the Azerbaijani movement "Nida" about politically motivated arrests and persecutions, and awarded compensation to them in the total amount of EUR 43,500.

February 18, 2021 23:44

• Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of February 1-7, 2021

  Case of Chechen native Djumaev; public outcry about a murder in Makhachkala; trial in a case against Ingush activists, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of February 1-7, 2021, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

February 18, 2021 23:29

• Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of January 25-31, 2021

  Return of refugees, post-war victims, and search for dead bodies in the Karabakh conflict zone; elite real estate apartments of the Kadyrov family in Moscow; crisis in South Ossetia, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 25-31, 2021, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

February 18, 2021 22:44

• Peskov forwards material about extrajudicial executions in Chechnya to law enforcers

  Today, while commenting on the material about victims of the extrajudicial executions released by the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for the President of Russia, has said that the newspaper's material cannot be considered as evidence of extrajudicial executions and that law enforcers should deal with such information.

February 18, 2021 22:21

• Anastasia Shevchenko punished with suspended sentence

  In Rostov-on-Don, a court found activist Anastasia Shevchenko guilty under a criminal article on participation in activities of an undesirable organization and punished her with four years of conditional sentence.

February 18, 2021 22:08

• Social media users treat election won by Kadyrov's son as unfair

  Adam Kadyrov, a son of the leader of Chechnya, has become the president of the school self-administration as a result of a procedure that had little in common with the real election, note users of Instagram and VKontakte.

February 18, 2021 18:32

• FSB reports about detention of terrorists in Dagestan and Kuban

  Today, the press service for the Russian FSB has reported about the detention of members of the international terrorist organization "Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami"* in 10 regions of Russia, including Dagestan and the Krasnodar Territory. According to a source from the law enforcement bodies, one member of the "Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami"*, a native of Uzbekistan, was detained in Dagestan.

February 18, 2021 18:07

• Georgian MIA postpones arrest of Nika Meliya after resignation of Prime Minister

  After the resignation of Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakhariya, the execution of the court's decision about the arrest of oppositionist Nika Meliya has been postponed for some time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia reports. Supporters of Giorgi Gakhariya explained his resignation by disagreements and called his leaving unexpected.

February 18, 2021 13:44

• "Mediazona" editor-in-chief released

  Today, Sergey Smirnov, the editor-in-chief of the "Mediazona", has left the special detention centre in Sakharovo in Moscow, after 15 days of administrative arrest under the case of calling people to participate in a rally for Alexei Navalny.

February 18, 2021 13:21

• Woman from Grozny publicly repents of witchcraft

  In the report broadcast by the "Grozny" ChGTRK (Chechen State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company), Zina Dolueva, a resident of Grozny, promised to stop carrying out witchcraft rituals. The woman who had ordered the ritual was also publicly scolded by Adam Elzhurkaev, a theologian.

February 18, 2021 11:19

• MPs offer to make Russian the official language in Nagorno-Karabakh

  A bill on the recognition of the Russian language as an official language along with the Armenian one has been brought into the parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh. The issue of the second official language in the unrecognized republic became especially acute after the 2020 autumn war of, Aram Arutyunyan, an MP, has explained.

February 18, 2021 11:07

• Ombudsperson withdraws from inquiry into extrajudicial executions in Chechnya

  Tatiana Moskalkova, the Russian ombudsperson, has failed to react to the investigation conducted by the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper into the replacement of Chechen residents from the so-called "execution list" by their brothers so as not to confront Ramzan Kadyrov, says Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the "Civil Assistance"* Committee.

February 18, 2021 08:40

• Educative talk at Achkhoi-Martan ROVD angers Instagram users

  The video, in which a police officer scolds two young men from the Achkhoi-Martan District for supporting online publications criticizing Chechen authorities, has sparked outrage among Instagram users. One of the young men had been slandered, one of the commentators has stated.

February 18, 2021 08:27

• Magomed Khamkhoev's relatives treat his sentence as too harsh

  The accusations against Magomed Khamkhoev, a participant in the rally in Magas, were untenable; and the court verdict that sent him to colony was unfair and harsh, his relative and advocate have stated.

February 17, 2021 22:21

• Analysts voice doubts about Azerbaijani political prisoners' chances for pardoning

  The authorities of Azerbaijan need political prisoners as a frightening factor to maintain the stability of the government, so a pardoning requested by human rights defendants from the Azerbaijani president is unlikely to affect many political prisoners. This opinion was voiced by analysts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

February 17, 2021 22:02

• In Neftekumsk, Jehovah's Witnesses* lose their jobs because of criminal prosecution

  Konstantin Samsonov, Alexander Akopov, and Shamil Sultanov, accused in a case against the Jehovah's Witnesses*, are at large. However, the defendants are not able to return to their workplaces and are experiencing difficulties with medical assistance because of the restrictions imposed on them by the court, advocate Denis Vladimirov reports.

February 17, 2021 18:41

• "Mediazona" reports about background of searches in village of Tarki

  After an arrest of a law enforcer suspected of possessing drugs, mass searches were conducted in the Dagestani village of Tarki. Local residents associate the searches with the revenge of relatives of the arrested law enforcer against the opponents of drug addiction, the "Mediazona" reports today.

February 17, 2021 18:28

• Video with an apology of Chechen resident for a garbage dump outrages social media users

  The authorities collected the garbage left by a resident of Chechnya in the forest and transported it to his house, while the villager himself publicly apologized for his act. Some Instagram users have criticized officials for the above actions.

February 17, 2021 15:52

• Two people detained after attack on journalists in Georgia

  In Chiatura, policemen detained two men suspected of attacking a journalist and a TV channel operator who prepared a report from the village of Shukruti, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has reported.