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The Month in Brief - January 2008

January 5

The Voice of Beslan committee (Golos Beslana), an NGO created by victims of the Beslan school tragedy, asked Russia's Prosecutor General to remove Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, who heads the group in charge of the investigation of the terrorist act.

January 8

Two guerrillas were killed and one military serviceman injured during a security operation in the village of Tsanak in the Tabarasansky district of Dagestan.

January 9

The Public Prosecutor of Ingushetia's city of Nazran charged the North Ossetian "Voice of Beslan" NGO with extremism.

One policeman was shot dead and another injured by gunmen in an ambush in the village of Nesterovskaya in Ingushetiya's Sunzhensky district.

January 10

Six guerrillas were killed in the Tabasaransky district of Dagestan.

January 11

The Chechen government's press service announced that a Chechen plant will start assembling Lada cars as of May.

January 12

In Nalchik unknown perpetrators shot dead Anatoly Kyarov, head of the Organized Crime Unit of the Interior Ministry of Kabardino-Balkaria, and his colleague.

January 14

Adam Kozdoyev, a resident of the Ingush village of Kantyshevo, was killed in a shoot-out in the village of Verkhniye Achaluki in Ingushetia's Malgobeksky district.

The Chechen government press service announced that, starting this year, the Terek Grozny soccer team will play home matches at the Sultan Bilimkhanov Stadium in Grozny.

Three alleged guerrillas were killed during a security operation in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.

January 15

The Chechen Court of Arbitration began hearings on the Chechen government's complaint against the Russian Defence Ministry about the alleged illegal occupation of large areas of land by the military.

The Chechen Prosecutor's Office announced that it had asked the republic's Supreme Court to order the closing of the Grozny-based Chechen branch of the British NGO Centre for Peacebuilding and Community Development (CPCD) due to the organization's failure to comply with registration, tax and other legislation.

Four alleged guerrillas were killed in a police operation in Grozny.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Oleg Orlov, chairman of the Human Rights Centre Memorial, said that although the human rights situation in Chechnya has noticeably improved, a totalitarian society has been developing in the republic.

January 16

A Chechen policeman and a Dagestani guerrilla died in a battle near the villages of Marzoy-Mokhk and Benoy in Chechnya's Vedensky district.

A local OMON police officer, Movsar Martazanov, was shot dead in the center of the town of Karabulak, Ingushetia.

January 17

In its first verdict concerning grave human rights violations in Ingushetia, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Russia for the killing of two civilians, Khalid Khatsiyev and Kazbek Akiyev, in the vicinity of the village of Arshty, Ingushetia, in August 2000. Russia has to pay a total of over 109 000 euros in damages to seven relatives of the victims.

Chechen district and city administration heads were ordered to determine the exact borders of their districts and cities by February 5.

January 18

Sultan Abdulkhanov was appointed chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Chechen Republic, replacing Magomed Vakhayev, who had become one of Chechnya's new deputies in the Russian State Duma.

A fitness centre opened in Grozny.

January 19

Chechen Premier Odes Baysultanov replaced President Ramzan Kadyrov as head of the Chechen branch of the federal United Russia Party following the January 14 election of Kadyrov to the party's Supreme Council.

Chechnya's Security Council was dismantled, and staff and structural changes were made in the cabinet, the government press service announced.

January 20

Two Russian Interior Ministry servicemen were killed near the village of Niki-Khita in Chechnya's Kurchaloyevsky district.

January 21

The Russian daily Kommersant wrote that Dukhvakha Abdurakhmanov, speaker of the lower house of Chechen parliament, had become the head of the campaign team of Dmitry Medvedev, the most likely successor to President Putin.

January 22

In central Nazran, Ingushetia, a car with explosives blew up, killing one person inside. Shortly afterwards one member of the Russian special services was killed and three others injured when unknown gunmen opened fire on a minibus, also in central Nazran.

January 23

One police officer was killed and another seriously wounded when unknown perpetrators opened fire on their car in the Zavodskoy district of Grozny.

A street in Grozny was renamed to commemorate 84 Russian paratroopers who lost their lives in a battle with Chechen guerrillas near the village of Ulus-Kert in Chechnya's Shatoysky district on February 29, 2000.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned foreign journalists against independent trips to Chechnya, claiming they are dangerous because of the remaining gangs that keep operating there.

Three guerrillas were killed in a battle with Russian Interior Ministry troops near the village of Almak in Kazbeksky district in Dagestan.

January 25

Part of Ingushetia, including the cities of Nazran and Magas, the village of Barsuki and the environs of the village of Nesterovskaya, was declared a "counter-terrorist operation zone", the local branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on the eve of a protest rally in Nazran.

January 26

Ingush authorities used force to prevent a rally in protest against the situation in the republic and its local leadership from taking place in central Nazran. Most of the people who were detained, including several journalists and human rights defenders, were released on the same day.

January 27

A Russian serviceman, a Chechen police officer and two guerrillas were killed in a clash near the village of Gordali in Chechnya's Nozhay-Yurtovsky district.

January 28

Russian military shelled the village of Gekhi in Chechnya's Achkhoy-Martanovsky district after guerrillas attacked a military unit near Bamut, a village located 25 kilometres away. Several homes suffered significant damage, but fortunately there were no civilian casualties.

General Nikolai Sivak replaced Yakov Nedobitko as commander of the Joint Troops Group (OGV), which carries out counter-terrorist operations in the North Caucasus region.

January 29

The Chechen government set up an inter-ministerial commission to attract and employ foreign workers in the Chechen Republic, the government press-service reported.

Kabardino-Balkarian Interior Minister Yuri Tomchak said that the same local guerrillas carried out the January 12 killing of Anatoly Kyarov, head of the Ministry’s Organized Crime Unit, and the November 3 killing of nine huntsmen and forest wardens in the republic’s Chegemsky district.

January 30

A Russian Interior Ministry serviceman was kidnapped by a group of unknown people near the village of Chiskhi in Chechnya's Urus-Martanovsky district. According to the February 8 report by the pro-guerrilla website Chechencenter, which refers to a statement by Dishni Abdulmalik, the commander of guerrillas operating in the Urus-Martanovsky district, he was executed by the guerrillas in revenge for a recent killing of two Chechen women by government forces in Grozny.

Two young men, Ramzan Nalgiyev and Dzhabrail Mutsulgov, were killed in the Ingush village of Surkhakhi. According to local law enforcers they were involved in acts of terrorism, but relatives said they were innocent civilians.

Two Russian police officers were wounded by unknown gunmen in the village of Ekazhevo in Ingushetia's Nazranovsky district. One of them died in hospital the following day.

 

Compiled by Prague Watchdog. Along with these monthly summaries, we also publish weekly summaries, distributing them on Mondays to the subscribers of our free weekly newsletter.

(B,D,T)