Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of April 12-18

Power agents state detention of suspects of committing terror acts in Moscow; explosions and shelling accompany one year's anniversary of CTO regime cancellation; Sochi residents are on duty round the clock in cut-down green zones, but IOC commission continues naming the preparation of Olympiad-2014 successful; Lithuania goes on prosecuting the large Chechen family of Gataevs; Armenians prepare for the Memory Day of genocide victims and its recognition by local authorities of Georgia and Kuban; PACE delegation studied the situation in Georgia and Abkhazia, but "got stuck" on the border of South Ossetia, - look up these and other events in the review of the week of April 12-18, 2010, in the Caucasian regions prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Terror acts in Russia: power agents have suspects; Russians have no confidence in power agents

Last week Anvar Sharipov, brother of Mariam Sharipova (according to the investigation, she blew her up in Moscow metro on March 29), who was announced into federal search and is now hiding, said that he had no attitude to the terror acts and even did not know about his sister's arrival in Moscow where he lives with his family.

In his turn, Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the FSB of the Russian Federation, announced at the sitting of the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) solution of recent resonant terror acts. According to his story, in particular, 26 members of the terrorist group who organized blowing up of the "Neva-Express" train last November were liquidated, 14 more participants of the terror act were detained. The head of the FSB also told that in the case on terror acts in Moscow metro and in Kizlyar not only the executors and organizers were established, but also their helpers. Now, according to Mr Bortnikov, power agents "are engaged in the necessary operative-search and investigatory actions", and the state prepares "a preventive and tough answer to terrorists."

Meanwhile, the results of the polls conducted on April 9-13 by the Levada-Centre in Moscow, St Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Ekaterinburg and Novosibirsk evidence that the majority of residents of large cities (88 percent) believe that the Russian leadership should bear responsibility for the "terrorist war" underway in the country.

Besides, as the poll has evidenced, Russians do not rely very much on the measures of power agents aimed towards prevention of possible new terror acts. More than half of the respondents (55 percent) also believe that Russian special services had known about prepared terror acts in Moscow metro, but failed to prevent them because of their incompetence.

Chechnya without CTO: year of frequent kidnappings, terror acts and murders

April 16 was a year after cancellation in Chechnya of the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime, which had lasted for almost ten years. The authorities of the republic announced a holiday on that day - the Day of Peace and a day-off.

The Chechen leadership decided to make a broad-scaled celebration of the first anniversary of CTO cancellation. Grozny, other cities and large settlements of the republic held national festivities, concerts with participation of local variety stars, marches and sports shows. The schools of the republic held "lessons of courage". Broad-scaled actions of religious character were also held by the Spiritual Department of Moslems of Chechnya.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov named the day of CTO cancellation one of the most significant days in modern history of the Chechen Republic, having noted that the decision to cancel the CTO regime was reasonable: "We've proved that we are able to keep stability and neutralize terrorists." However, statistics, on the contrary, evidences a sharp growth of murders, explosions, bombardments and kidnappings in Chechnya - this sort of messages come from the region practically every day.

This week has not gone without such incidents. Thus, in the evening on the holiday, in southern suburb of Martan-Chu village, Urus-Martan District, a group of unidentified persons shelled two cars in a country road. A militiaman and a local resident were lost.

At night of April 16, in the Urus-Martan District of Chechnya, as a result of a skirmish with could-be militants a local OMON (special militia) fighter was wounded and later died in hospital. In the afternoon on April 15 in the Achkhoi-Martan District of Chechnya two explosions happened, as a result of which, as reported by law enforcement bodies of the republic, three soldiers were lost and one more wounded.

Another explosion was triggered on April 12 in the Kurchaloy District of Chechnya. Three militiamen were injured. On that very day, in the Naur District, power agents killed a young man who rendered armed resistance at detention. Law enforcement bodies have stated that the casualty was an active participant of the armed underground.

Let us note here that this week another development was seen in the case about the attempt on Hero of Russia Sulim Yamadaev, former commander of the special GRU battalion "Vostok", accomplished more than a year ago in the United Arab Emirates. On April 12, the court in Dubai sentenced two figurants in the case - Ramzan Kadyrov's horseman Makhdi Lorniya, a native of Iran, and Maksudzhon Ismatov, a businessman from Tajikistan, - to life imprisonment. In the Arab Emirates, the lifelong term means 25 years of prison. Sulim Yamadaev's relatives found the sentence fair.

Gataevs: persecuted by Lithuania; non-recognized by Finland

The persecution of the family of Malika and Khadizhat Gataev, the natives of Chechnya, by law enforcement bodies of Lithuania continues. The Gataevs who had been taken care of Chechen orphans since 1997 in Grozny, and who moved later, together with their own children and ten adopted orphans, to Lithuania, where they were sentenced to imprisonment for cruel treatment of their children, are now at large. This March, the Ministry of Justice of Lithuania recalled the European arrest order of the Gataevs.

Earlier, Finland, where the Gataevs applied for political asylum last year, refused to deport them to Lithuania, which demanded their return; however, rejected their political application. The Gataevs then decided to appeal against the rejection at the Administrative Court of Helsinki. Now, the married couple from Chechnya waits for the judgement.

Leonidas Donskis, a Deputy of the European Parliament from Lithuania, addressed his open letter to the migratory authorities of Finland and to the Administrative Court of Helsinki in support of granting political asylum to Malik and Khadizhat Gataev.

While the Gataevs wait for their political asylum in Finland, law enforcement bodies of Lithuania got interested in Malik Gataev's brother Zaur, who lives in Kaunas. Aiming to find him, the police came to the house of Liudmila Komissarova, sister of Zaur's wife Yulia. Having not found Zaur there, on April 17, policemen searched the house.

Olympiad-2014: IOC delegation is happy; Sochi residents are in panic

This week the opposition of ecologists and residents of pre-Olympic Sochi against local authorities and businessmen continued. From the beginning of the week, after a new construction fence appeared in the on Plane-Tree Alley - instead of the landscape corner made by the well-known Sochi designer Venchagov and "Philately" shop, city dwellers organized a round-the-clock watch there.

On April 17, about 200 residents of the city-resort Sochi went out to hold a three-hour picket in the Plane-Tree Alley, where over 3000 persons signed in "in defence of the general-use green zones against the corruption actions of the authorities and businesses."

Officials from Sochi administration have ignored the picket. The calls to the telephone hotline of the city mayor were answered that there were no mayor's instructions to remove the fence in the Plane-Tree Alley, but promised that no trees would suffer at the construction. Earlier, the head of the companies engaged in construction in this territory said that the green plantings will not be cut out, but removed. Nevertheless, after the picket activists sent their applications to the public prosecutor, head of the local UVD (Interior Department) and Sochi mayor with a demand to restore the green zone as it was and stop the construction. Sochi residents plan to defend the Plane-Tree Alley "till the fence is removed, and the destroyed Venchagov historical corner and 'Philately' shop restored in the former form."

In the meantime, since April 13 Sochi received the third visit of the Coordination Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which arrived with the aim to make a general evaluation of the results reached in preparation for the 2014 Winter Games. On April 14 in the course of the space television bridge from Sochi with participation of the IOC Evaluation Commission IOC, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin said that in 2010 the federal sources assume financing of the Olympic objects in Sochi at a rate of over 29.7 billion roubles. Private investors will add 29.1 billion roubles more.

By the outcomes of the visit, the IOC delegates said that IOC welcomed the successes, reached by the organizers the Olympiads-2014 in Sochi, and noted that all the works are carried out under the schedule. "What has been done in the vicinities of Sochi is impressive," Jean-Claude Killi, Chairman of the "Sochi-2014" Evaluation Commission of the IOC, said on April 15 in Paris. "About 16,000 workers are working round the clock at 43 construction sites; it is one of the largest and most ambitious projects in Europe."

The IOC has reminded the organizers that they should pay more attention to some aspects, in particular, to accommodation of guests, recruitment and training of labour force, and to construction.

Armenians ask Caucasian regions to recognize genocide of 1915

This week, the government of Armenia has allocated 18 million drams (about 45,000 US dollars) from the reserve fund to organize and hold the actions dated to the 95th anniversary of Armenians' genocide to be marked on April 24.

Some actions have already started. In particular, on April 17, Yerevan opened an exhibition dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the Armenian tragedy, where materials and works are presented from the Genocide Museum-Institute, National Picture Gallery, History Museum of Armenia and House-Museum of Saryan. The programme of events also includes international scientific conferences and educational events in schools.

Nagorno-Karabakh has also started the actions dated to the 95th anniversary of the genocide. On April 16 in Stepanakert, the "Union of youth of Artsakh" of the ARF "Dashnaktsutyun" organized an action in memory of genocide victims with a demand to the world community to recognize the Armenians' genocide.

In its turn, the Armenian community of Georgia demands recognition of the genocide by the parliament of this country. In this context the community addressed its official letters to President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili, chairman of parliament of Georgia David Bakradze, personally to every MP and to leaders of some political parties.

In the Kuban River region (another name for the Krasnodar Territory), in the course of the conference "Armenians' Genocide and Western Armenia" held in the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban on April 17, local Armenians also adopted an appeal to the Deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory with an appeal to recognize the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.