All news

December 16, 2009 23:50

• Rachel Denber, HRW: Russian authorities shall ensure human rights activists' safety in Chechnya

  Russian authorities must do everything possible to ensure safety of human rights activists in Chechnya. This was stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Rachel Denber, deputy director of the branch of the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) for Europe and Central Asia.

December 16, 2009 23:40

• Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia is indignant with report of TV Company "Rustavi-2"

  The Association has sent a letter to the editorial board of the "Rustavi-2" in protest against the report that appeared in the "Courier" TV Programme.

December 16, 2009 23:20

• Magomed Gasanov: Dagestan court gives no motion to claim against Minister

  Shamil Gasanov, Federal Judge of the Sovietskiy District, is protracting not to consider the statement of claim on protecting honour, dignity and business reputation of the weekly edition "Novoe Delo" and its journalist Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev, where Garun Kurbanov, Minister on National Policy, Information and Foreign Relations of Dagestan, is indicated as respondent. This was stated on December 15 by Magomed Gasanov, who is a proxy of the LLC "Novoe Delo" - owner of the weekly having the same name.

December 16, 2009 23:10

• Parliament of Chechnya to inaugurate an alternative to Nobel Peace Prize

  The Council of the Parliament of Chechnya has made a decision to establish the International Peace Prize named after the first President of the republic Ahmat-Hadji Kadyrov. The decision was made because the MPs believe that the Nobel Committee discredited itself by award the Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama.

December 16, 2009 23:00

• Cherkasov: Estemirova never took her eyes away from today's problems

  The last thing that Natalia Estemirova did was to state that Chechnya again has public executions. This was stated by Alexander Cherkasov, a member of the Board of the HRC "Memorial", at the ceremony in Moscow of awarding the medal of Russian Ombudsman "Hurry Making Good", where Natalia Estemirova was awarded posthumously. In Mr Cherkasov's opinion, probably, she was assassinated because of that.

December 16, 2009 23:00

• President of Chechnya: journalists are same heroes as those at war against extremists with arms in hand

  On the eve of the Memory Day of journalists who perished at execution of their professional duties, President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov made a special statement naming journalists "warriors of the pen and worthy people."

December 16, 2009 22:00

• Rostov-on-Don: NGO leader reports discrediting attempts

  Press releases were disseminated among local media in this city on behalf of the regional branch of the All-Russian NGO named "Young Europe". The letters recommended "informing children in educational establishments about persons of non-traditional sexual orientation."

December 16, 2009 21:00

• Chairman of European Parliament: EU hopes Russia to stop violence against its human rights defenders

  The European Parliament, by awarding the Andrei Sakharov Prize to the members of the HRC "Memorial" and the Moscow Helsinki Group, is expressing gratitude to all Russian human rights defenders. This is said in the statement of the Chairman of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek.

December 16, 2009 20:00

• Residents of Dagestan ask Mukhu Aliev to protect young people from "debauch and cruelty" in mass media

  Today, Khadizhat Shikhalieva, chair of the "Muslimat" Society, and a group of residents of Novy Kyakhulai village, Leninsliy District of the city of Makhachkala, and of Sergokala settlement, Sergokalin District, have addressed President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev with a request to protect children, according to the Law "On Personal and Public Morals in the Republic of Dagestan", against the fatal influence of morals degradation as covered by media.

December 16, 2009 19:30

• Poland to consider the stay in the country of Georgian and Chechen refugees who tried to illegally get to Germany

  The refugees from Chechnya and Georgia, who tried to get to Germany from the territory of Poland, were placed for the night in the settlement of the frontier guards; and today they will be returned to the refugee centres, where their further stay in the territory of Poland will be decided on the individual basis. This was reported by Polish journalist Augustina, who cooperates with the newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza".

December 16, 2009 19:00

• Alexei Dymovskiy may be accused of plunders and divulgation

  The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has finished the service check in relation to Militia Major from Novorossisk Alexei Dymovskiy and has delivered its results to the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation. Mr Dymovskiy himself believes that initiation of a criminal case against him is a clinched matter.

December 16, 2009 18:00

• HRC "Memorial" resumes its work in Chechnya

  Starting today, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" resumes the full scope of its work in Chechnya. It was suspended after the murder of the human rights defender Natalia Estemirova, as Oleg Orlov, the head of the Centre said at a press conference in the European Parliament.

December 15, 2009 23:50

• Lawyer: defendants in "Neva-Express" train are ready to evidence but ask to observe the CCP

  The rumours that defendants in the case of 2007 "Neva-Express" train explosion refused to evidence have nothing to do with reality: they just demand to observe the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP), according to which the prosecution party should be listened to completely prior to defendants' evidences. This was stated by Murat Yunusov, who is defending their interests.

December 15, 2009 23:20

• Vladimir Pozner: Estemirova valued human life higher than state interests

  The employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Chechnya Natalia Estemirova "had one motivation - a human's right to human rights, and, first of all, to the right to life and human dignity", said Vladimir Pozner, a renown TV journalist.

December 15, 2009 23:20

• Georgian Labourites demand announcement of swine flu epidemic in the country

  Georgia sees growth in swine flu patients. 65 children are kept in the central children's clinic of Tbilisi (Murman Iashvili hospital) with symptoms of A/H1N1virus. Nino Kikodze, head of urgent aid ward, said in her conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that currently the diagnosis is confirmed in some 30-35 patients. The oppositional Labour Party of Georgia demands to urgently announce the epidemic in the country.

December 15, 2009 22:50

• Russia suspects Georgia of preparing revenge for loss of 2008 August war

  According to Russian diplomatic sources, Georgia is planning to try to return the Akhalgori (Leningori) District of South Ossetia by means of force. The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) also finds this threat real. According to a source from this Ministry, the Georgian troops deployed opposite this district, have been recently strengthened, their rotation is intensified; and western instructors are training Georgian militaries in skills of mountain war, applicable in the region.

December 15, 2009 22:20

• Attempt on imam committed in Dagestan

  On December 14 in the evening, in Khasavyurt, unidentified persons shot Taifur Eldarkhanov, imam of one of local mosques. Now, the wounded churchman is in hospital.

December 15, 2009 22:00

• Abkhazia and Nauru set diplomatic relations

  Today in Sukhumi, an agreement was signed on establishment of diplomatic relations between Abkhazia and the Republic of Nauru - one of the smallest countries in the world. Nauru, thus, has become the fourth country to recognize Abkhazia.

December 15, 2009 21:00

• Cardin, Hasting: Assail Lenient Sentence in Murder of Russian Journalist

  WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Co-Chairman Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) issued the following statements today after learning that a Russian court sentenced a law enforcement official to two years in prison for the murder of independent journalist Magomed Yevloyev.

December 15, 2009 20:00

• Azerbaijan: three activists of civil society of Nakhichevan banged up

  In the morning on December 15, in Nakhichevan, three participants of the project of the local Resource Centre on Human Rights and Democracy were beaten by a group of unidentified persons. The reason of the attack was in the anticorruption project of this public organization.