Week in the Caucasus: review of main events from April 29 to May 5

Voting to the Board of Elders; verdict of guilty passed by jury to Yusup Temerkhanov, accused of killing Yuri Budanov; distribution of quotas allocation for Hajj-2013 by Hajj Mission of Russia; legitimization of Mikhail Savva's arrest in Krasnodar and clash of locals with securities at construction site of TPP in Sochi; explosion in Makhachkala killing two children; start of discussing amendments to the law "On Occupied Territories" and Georgia's decision to take part in Sochi Olympics, - see the review of major events in the Caucasus during the week of April 29-May 5, 2013, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Election of Board of Elders of Yerevan

On May 5, Yerevan elected its Board of Elders. To take part in the elections, six parties submitted their proportional lists to the Central Election Commission (CEC), namely: the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), "Country of Rule of Law", "Prosperous Armenia" Party (PAP), Armenian National Congress (ANC), ARF "Dashnaktsutiun" (ARFD) and "Mission", as well as the bloc "Hello, Yerevan!"

According to preliminary data of the CEC of Armenia, the voter turnout was 53.53 percent of the total number of voters. By 5 p.m. on May 5, observers of the "Transparency International" reported about 420 violations in the course of the voting. Reports about violations during the elections were registered by the website iDitord.org. The police have filed two criminal cases on the facts of violations during the voting; while the CEC said that the elections were held within the legislation.

At 4.55 a.m. local time on May 6, the CEC of Armenia completed the vote tabulation. According to preliminary data, after processing the data from all the 464 polling stations, the elections were won by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, whose proportional list was headed by the incumbent Mayor Taron Markaryan, with 55.89 percent of the votes. The runner-up with a large gap was the "Prosperous Armenia" (23.07 percent), followed by the opposition bloc "Hello, Yerevan" (8.48 percent). The remaining contestants failed to conquer the threshold and will not be presented in the Board of Elders.

Jurymen find Temerkhanov guilty of killing Budanov

On April 29, the Moscow City Court (MCC) passed over to the pleadings in the murder case of former Colonel Yuri Budanov: the judge dismissed the motion of the defence of Yusup Temerkhanov, a native of Chechnya, demanding to resume the investigation and return the case to the prosecutor. The relatives of the casualty supported the prosecution and asked the jury to find Temerkhanov guilty. On the same day, late in the evening, the jury found Temerkhanov guilty of murdering Yuri Budanov; however, rejected the version that the murder was motivated by hatred to the social group of militaries.

On April 30, the prosecution asked the court to sentence Yusup Temerkhanov to 16 years in a high security colony and to additional penalty of two years of freedom restriction. Besides, the prosecution asked to reclassify the Temerkhanov's crime under Part 1, Article "Murder" (Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), whereas earlier he was charged with a murder motivated by blood feud (Part 2, Article 105, of the Criminal Code). The sentencing is scheduled for May 7.

Hajj Mission of Russia allocates quotas for Hajj-2013: Dagestan in the lead

On April 29, the sitting of the Hajj Mission of Russia held at the Council of Federation distributed the quotas for Hajj-2013 among the Spiritual Administrations of Muslims (SAMs) in Russian regions. This year, Saudi Arabia will accept 20,500 pilgrims from Russia. Almost half of the Russian quota for the Hajj will be taken by Dagestan, which will send 8000 pilgrims to Mecca. Chechnya has received 3600 tickets, the Council of Muftis of Russia - 3000, Ingushetia - 1800, Tatarstan - 1500, the Central SAM and the Coordinating Centre of Muslims of Northern Caucasus (CCMNC) - 1300 tickets each. Pilgrims from Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia will be included into the quota of the CCMNC; and pilgrims from the Stavropol Territory - into the quota of the SAM of Dagestan. Sending pilgrims to the Muslim holy sites will be performed by 10 accredited tour operators.

Legitimization of Mikhail Savva's arrest and another incident at the construction site of Kudepsta TPP in Krasnodar Territory

On April 29, the Krasnodar Territorial Court dismissed the complaint lodged against the arrest of Professor Mikhail Savva, the director of grant programmes of the Southern Regional Resource Centre and a lecturer at the Kuban State University, who was arrested on April 13 on suspicion of embezzling the budget funds allocated by the territorial administration in the form of a grant. According to Mr Savva's defence, the ruling of the court was unjust.

Representatives of the Human Rights Watch treat Mr Savva's arrest as unjustified, and the case against him - as politically motivated, since shortly before his arrest he criticized the actions of the law enforcers, who inspected the non-profit organizations of the Krasnodar Territory. Besides, as human rights activists note, on April 15, Mikhail Savva was going to make a report on the matter before the President's Council on Human Rights.

On April 29, in the township Kudepsta of Sochi, another incident occurred around the construction of the thermal power plant (TPP), which is built there in preparation for the Sochi Winter Olympic Games of 2014. The site was visited by employees of one of private security companies (the so-called ChOPs), who tried to remove the local residents on duty there and demanding to abandon the plans of building an industrial facility in the resort township. A fight burst out, in which the ChOP securities were opposed by about 50 local residents; several victims later had to seek medical help. The resistance of the locals was broken.

Explosion in Makhachkala kills two children

On May 1, near the shop "Interskol", located near the Prosecutor's Office of the Lenin District of Makhachkala in Irchi Kazak Street, an explosion occurred. Two persons were killed and two more were wounded, their lives are out of danger. The casualties were two 10-year-old children, the fourth grade pupils of Lyceum No. 5 of Makhachkala. According to the Russian National Antiterrorism Committee (NAC), the explosion at the store "Interskol" could be an attempt to intimidate the owner. Earlier, an explosive device was once found near this store, an eyewitness of the explosion said.

Georgia starts discussing amendments to the law "On Occupied Territories" and decides to take part in Sochi Olympic Games

On May 2, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Georgia voted unanimously - during its emergency session - for participation of Georgian athletes in the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014. The president of the NOC of Georgia said that the leaders of all the Olympic sports federations of the country believed that "the boycott of the Olympic Games in Sochi would not be justified from the sporting or political viewpoints."

On the same day, the Georgian parliament began discussing the amendments to the law "On Occupied Territories", proposed by Paata Zakareishvili, State Minister for Reintegration. According to the amendments, only those foreigners, who have repeatedly penetrated into Georgia through Abkhazia and South Ossetia, will be prosecuted. The debates on the amendments became the most lengthy in the history of the Georgian parliamentary system; the members of the oppositional "United National Movement" took a number of actions to prevent voting. As a result, it was decided to postpone the voting on the bill.