Week in the Caucasus: review of main events on December 16-22

Two court verdicts in the Krasnodar Territory: on real prison term to environmental activist Evgeny Vitishko and annulment of the ban on translation of the Koran; death in road accident in Moscow of Deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan Gadji Makhachev; early resignation of Mayor Nalchik, Kanokov's transition to work in Parliament and new government of KBR, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of December 16-22, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Two verdicts in Krasnodar Territory: real imprisonment to ecologist Evgeny Vitishko and annulment of ban on Koran translation

On December 20, the Court of Tuapse overturned the conditional sentence of ecologist Evgeny Vitishko, an activist of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus", in the case of damaging the fence around the so-called "Governor's summer house" of Alexander Tkachov, Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, and sentenced him to a real imprisonment. The petition to change the sentence was lodged by the local UFSIN (Federal Penitentiary Service) Inspectorate; the prosecutor supported it, stating that the convict Vitishko had three times within a year violated the prescribed regime of his conditional imprisonment. The court sent Evgeny Vitishko for three years to a colony-settlement. Let us note here that the Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners had recognized Evgeny Vitishko and Suren Gazaryan, another convict in the same case, who was forced to leave Russia and was granted a residence permit in Estonia, as the "persons persecuted for political reasons".

On December 17, the Krasnodar Territorial Court quashed the decision the Oktiabrskiy District Court of Novorossiysk of September 17, which satisfied the lawsuit lodged by the Transport Prosecutor's Office of the city and found the book by Elmir Kuliev, an Azerbaijani religious philosopher, entitled "Semantic Translation of Holy Koran into Russian", to be an extremist material. The book had been found in one of postal parcels and attracted the attention of law enforcement bodies. Four appeals complaints were later filed against the above decision of the Novorossiysk court, including those lodged by the representative of the translator of the Koran Elmir Kuliev, and by Askarbiy Kardanov, the Mufti of Adygea and Krasnodar Territory.

Road accident in Moscow kills Deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan Gadji Makhachev

An accident involving the Mercedes of Gadji Makhachev, the Deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan, occurred on December 19 in Moscow. As a result, Gadji Makhachev and two people from the car, into which his Mercedes rushed into, died on the spot. The accident also injured five people, including four members of Makhachev's family. A criminal case was opened; and according to preliminary information of the GIBDD (traffic police), Makhachev himself was responsible for the accident. His body was delivered to Dagestan on December 20; and on December 21 he was buried in his native village of Burtunay.

KBR: new government, the early resignation of Mayor Nalchik, Kanokov goes to work in Parliament

On December 19, the former head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) Arsen Kanokov, who retired from this post on December 6, received a republic's parliamentary mandate to replace a prematurely resigned member of the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party. Sources from political bodies of the republic predict that Kanokov can become a senator from the region at the Federation Council instead of Fatima Ivanova, who filed a resignation application on December 17, which was granted on December 18. For the local parliament to nominate Kanokov for the Russia's Federation Council, the latter must have an MP mandate.

Later, it became known that on December 17 Yuri Kokov, the acting head of the KBR, signed a decree "On Personal Membership of the Government of the KBR", where Konstantin Khramov, appointed by Kanokov on October 31, preserved the post of the Prime Minister.

On December 16, the Self-Governing Council of the city of Nalchik satisfied the application for early retirement lodged by Zalimgeri Khagasov, the head of the city administration. The reason for his resignation is unknown; however, according to unofficial sourced, Khagasov's retirement has to do with the change of power in the republic. Igor Kladko, the first deputy chief of the administration, is now the acting Mayor.

In Geneva, parties to South-Caucasian conflict tried again tried to settle disputes

Negotiations on security in Southern Caucasus were held on December 18 in Geneva. During the discussions, South Ossetia again offered Georgia to take measures to delineate the state border; however, the talks on this issue were unsuccessful. Among other humanitarian issues, Georgia raised the issue of granting passports to the population of the Gali District of Abkhazia, which consists of ethnic Georgians. On December 19, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) issued a statement that the initiative of the Russian Federation to sign a joint statement of the parties of Geneva discussions on non-use of force in the region was blocked, because Georgia was not ready to support it. The co-chairs undertook to prepare a compromise proposal on this issue by the next round of Geneva talks to be held in March 2014.

In Grozny, fire occurred in a large marketplace

A strong fire broke out in the territory of the republic's mall "Berkat" in the Chechen capital on December 18. Its area made 200 square meters; and according to eyewitnesses, the smoke from the fire spread almost over the entire city. There were no casualties; however, the fire destroyed several storage premises and one shopping pavilion. A woman with carbon monoxide poisoning was brought to a Grozny hospital; another victim received medical care on site. The fire broke out due to short-circuit, said the Ministry for Emergencies of Chechnya. Arson is also considered among the versions of the incident.