All news

December 25, 2009 21:00

• Evkurov: fight against corruption in Ingushetia is fruitless

  The war on corruption in Ingushetia is a failure because of "dishonesty and indecency" of certain judges, President Yunus-Bek Evkurov has stated. At the same time, Vladimir Ustinov, Plenipotentiary of Russian President in the Southern Federal District (SFD), praises the efforts of the President of Ingushetia who "actively works with the population" and treats him as a positive example of how to act in order to make the "state power work for the society."

December 25, 2009 20:00

• In Adzharia, owners of TV-25 to discuss their debt with Ombudsman of Georgia

  On December 26, in Batumi, journalists of the oppositional channel TV-25 will present documents to the Ombudsman of Georgia Georgiy Tugushi, on the basis of which they will try to write off their debt, which threatens to stop the channel. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Merab Merkviladze, owner and director of the TV company.

December 25, 2009 19:00

• Relative of Tochiev, executed in Ingushetia, accuses power agents of pogrom in her house

  Today, in Srednie Achaluki village, Malgobek District of Ingushetia, power agents have conducted a non-sanctioned search. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Leila Tochieva, the owner of the searched house.

December 25, 2009 19:00

• Yaraliev: Dagestan authorities hamper enforcement of judgement on Derbent election

  One of the candidates to the post of Mayor of the city of Derbent, former public prosecutor of Dagestan and now the head of the Suleiman-Stalskiy District Imam Yaraliev has expressed his satisfaction with the decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Dagestan (RD), according to which the outcomes of the election in Derbent were nullified.

December 25, 2009 18:00

• IMR states impairment of freedom of speech in Azerbaijan

  Today, the Institute of Media Rights (IMR) has presented its 2009 report on the situation with the freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, which notes that the situation with the freedom of speech in the country "remains poor, and Azerbaijan is behind many countries by this indicator," as Leila Madatli, the IMR's spokesperson, said at the presentation of the report in the Baku Media Centre.

December 25, 2009 17:00

• Ombudsman of Armenia: courts are under prosecutors' pressure

  Armen Arutyunyan, Ombudsman of Armenia has presented his extraordinary public report "Ensuring Fair Litigation in the Republic of Armenia", where the abnormal operation of the judiciary was treated as a "systemic problem."

December 25, 2009 16:00

• Armenian Nature Ministry returns 118.4 million drams to the budget

  As reported by Minister Aram Arutyunyan, the checks conducted by his Ministry of Nature Protection this year have revealed over 700 violations in the spheres of fauna and flora protection, protection and use of water bodies and illegal felling. As a result of the checks, the Ministry has returned 118.4 million drams back to the state budget.

December 24, 2009 23:15

• Russian Federation and Abkhazia agree on accommodation of diplomatic representative offices

  Today in Moscow, Foreign Ministers of Russia and Abkhazia Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Shamba have signed the intergovernmental agreement which "creates the legal basis for functioning of diplomatic representative offices of the two countries."

December 24, 2009 22:14

• Experts see a "precedent of justice" in cancellation of Derbent elections

  The decision of the Supreme Court of Dagestan to cancel the outcomes of the elections in the city of Derbent is lawful and justified. The experts who stick to this opinion say that the courts have perceived President Medvedev's signal.

December 24, 2009 21:46

• Observers find municipal elections in Azerbaijan non-free and non-democratic

  The municipal elections on December 23 in Azerbaijan were accompanied by rough violations of the law and, consequently, cannot be regarded as free, democratic and fair. This is asserted in the primary statement of the Centre for Monitoring Elections and Training in Democracy (CMETD) adopted on the monitoring results of the election campaign.

December 24, 2009 20:19

• Movsisyan: Armenia is interested to export energy to Turkey

  In the near future, should the Armenian-Turkish border get opened, Armenia will be able to export electric power to Turkey. Armenia is interested in this export to the neighbour, where the energy deficit is high. This was stated by Armen Movsisyan, Minister for Power and Natural Resources of Armenia.

December 24, 2009 20:00

• Ingushetia: debaters name safety among top problems

  On December 18-19, the project "Peace to the Caucasus", which assumes meetings, discussions and roundtables in the republics of Northern Caucasus, visited Ingushetia.

December 24, 2009 18:28

• In Georgia, refugees from South Ossetia protest against electricity cut-offs

  The refugees from South Ossetia, who were temporarily accommodated in Skra village (8 km off the city of Gori), held a protest action by blocking a railway section not far from Gori. According to Georgian media, they demand restoration of electricity supply to their houses.

December 24, 2009 18:00

• Tbilisi: Russian human rights activists try to release their Georgian colleague

  Russian human rights defenders Ernst Chorny and Sergey Kovalyov came to Tbilisi to meet President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili. According to Mr Kovalyov, earlier they sent a letter to Mikhail Saakashvili asking him to release human rights activist Academician Vladimir Vakhaniya.

December 23, 2009 23:20

• Gayane Khachatryan: Armenian political prisoner Mikaelyan can be early relieved

  The current legislation assumes a mechanism of early relief of prisoners in case of a heavy disease, which prevents any further stay in prison. Lawyer Gayane Khachatryan told about it to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent in her comment on the chances to get amnestied because of state of health for the Armenian political prisoner Sasun Mikaelyan.

December 23, 2009 22:58

• Resident of Dagestan asks Russian Public Prosecutor to punish the militiaman who beat him

  Today, Khaibula Khaibulaev, a resident of Karata village, Akhvakh District, has sent a letter to Yuri Chaika, General Public Prosecutor of Russia, asking him to attract Labazan Derbishev, head of criminal search of the Botlikh District, who severely beat Khaibulaev on August 16, 2009.

December 23, 2009 22:03

• Vladimir Ustinov: in 2009, count of terror acts in SFD is much higher

  In 2009, the number of crimes, which can be regarded as terror acts, committed in the south of Russia, went up by almost one third as compared with 2008; thus, during 11 months of this year, 786 such crimes were committed. This was stated on December 22 by Vladimir Ustinov, Plenipotentiary of Russian President for the South federal District (SFD).

December 23, 2009 21:43

• Official Tskhinvali protests against detention of South-Ossetian woman in Georgia

  In Tbilisi, Khatuna Charaeva, a resident of the Leningor District of South Ossetia, was detained with 30,000 counterfeit US dollars on her. Boris Chochiev, Plenipotentiary of President of South Ossetia on post-conflict settlement, said that "the Georgian authorities have started applying a new method of creating intolerable life conditions for the population of the area."

December 23, 2009 21:00

• Azerbaijan: opposition states falsification of elections

  In the evening on December 23, Azerbaijan finalized its municipal elections. They were attended by 1,462,070 voters, or 31.86 percent of the voters' list. As reported by Ramin Guseinov, head of the centre named "Elections", the outcomes are still unknown.

December 23, 2009 20:00

• Another local disappears in Kabardino-Balkaria

  The Kabardino-Balkarian human rights centre was approached by Lydia Zhangurazova, a resident of Verkhniaya Zhemtala village, Cherek District, Kabardino-Balkaria, who said that her son Islam Zhangurazov, 23, went for his evening pray to the mosque on Sunday, December 20, but never reached the mosque.