Briefs

– Organizers Postpone Protest Planned for November 24 in Ingushetia

The independent Ingushetiya.ru website on November 19 posted an announcement by the organizers of a demonstration that was scheduled to take place in Nazran on November 24 stating they had decided to postpone the protest, which was not authorized by Ingushetia’s authorities, until after the December 2 State Duma elections. The organizers said the decision was made in response to requests coming from Moscow, including from “representatives of the Russian president.” In a separate open letter to President Vladimir Putin posted on Ingushetiya.ru on November 19, the protest organizers stated that the population of Ingushetia “cannot understand” Putin’s support for Ingushetia’s president, Murat Zyazikov, who, they said, long ago discredited himself in the eyes of Ingushetia’s people by turning the republic into “a source of personal enrichment.”

– Strasbourg Court Rules Against Russia in Chechnya-Related Cases

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in three separate cases on November 15 that Russia must pay three Chechens a total of 264,000 euros ($386,469) in damages, Prague Watchdog reported on November 19. The Strasbourg-based court ruled in favor of Khamila Isaeva, whose husband Sultan Isaev was detained by Russian soldiers in the village of Alkhan-Kala in April 2001 and then disappeared; Khanbatay Khamidov, whose property was confiscated and destroyed by Russian forces in the Chechen village of Bratskoye in 1999; and Khamzat Kukaev, whose son, Chechen police officer Aslanbek Kukaev, was found dead after he was detained by Russian forces in Grozny in November 2000 (Chechnya Weekly, November 15). Russia also has to pay the three plaintiffs around 18,000 euros ($26,350) to cover their court expenses.

– Textbook That Might Offend Kadyrov Removed From Schools and Libraries

Prague Watchdog reported on November 19 that a Chechen-language textbook for fifth grade pupils is being withdrawn from Chechen schools and libraries because it contains a short story by the Chechen author Sayd-Khamzat Nunuev in which a young man tells his mother: “I’ll grow up and be a man, and you will never shed tears because of me. I will never steal other people’s money. I won’t be like Ramzan. He never paid for that brick house and bought that car with his own salary, did he? Does he think people are blind? They pretend to respect him, but really they hate him. I may be young, but I’m not stupid. I don’t need anything from Ramzan or any of the others like him.” Prague Watchdog wrote that while the story by Nunuev is one of his early works, “the Ministry of Education took the view that this monologue was seditious, and decided to make sure that readers were not given the chance to make the inevitable association with a well-known political figure, the Moscow-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.”

– Suspect in Kabardino-Balkaria Mass Murder Commits Suicide

Interfax reported on November 17 that an inhabitant of Kabardino-Balkaria’s Chrekesk district, who had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the murder of nine hunters and forest rangers earlier this month (Chechnya Weekly, November 8), committed suicide. The suspect, who was not named, was detained after he was allegedly found with a large quantity of weapons, explosives, foodstuffs and camping items. Newsru.com reported on November 17 that ten rebels, including Anzor Astemirov, a.k.a. Emir Seifullah, the leader of the rebels in Kabardino-Balkaria, are wanted for the murder of the hunters and forest rangers.

– Former ChRI Official Murdered in Baku

Imran Gaziev, who was an assistant to Ali Asaev, head of the former representation of unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), was killed in Baku, the Azerbaijani Press Agency (APA) reported on November 19. The news agency quoted the Azerbaijani Presecutor’s Office as saying that an unidentified gunman killed the 49-year-old Gaziev with seven shots and that a revolver and silencer were found at the scene of the crime.