Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of November 22-28

Tbilisi scared by night blasts; Stavropol Territory seeks roots of conflict between Cossacks and Chechens; "high water" attacks Krasnodar Territory again, - look these and other events in the review of the week of November 22-28, 2010, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Explosions in Georgia: one person killed, 5 more injured

While detection of bombs and explosions in public places in cities of Northern Caucasus today have become almost commonplace, in Southern Caucasus such incidents are instantly receiving considerable resonance. At night on Sunday, November 28, in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital two explosions were triggered.

The first of them happened in Dzhavakhishvili Street, near the office of the Labour Party at about 2:00 a.m. local time (1:00 a.m. Moscow time). The blast killed Nino Gordeziani, 58, a member of the Labour Party of Georgia. About an hour later, the second explosion happened - at the other end of the city, in the Mukhiani District, near a store.

All those who suffered are the victims of the first explosion: an office security guard and four local residents - they were all hospitalized. No victims of the Mukhiani explosion were reported.

The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has initiated a criminal case on the facts and confirmed that the same explosive substance was used in both explosions.

The opposition Labour Party of Georgia called the explosion at its main office in downtown Tbilisi an act of "political terror."

From Kondopoga and Kuschevskaya - to Zelenokumsk

By the end of the week one of the most discussed topics was the incident with application of firearms in the city of Zelenokumsk, Stavropol Territory, which resulted in a massive discussion on the possible ethnic background of what happened.

Eight persons were injured in the armed conflict on November 27 in Zelenokumsk; five of them were hospitalized. Four suspects were brought to the Sovietskiy ROVD (District Interior Division) for proceedings; all of them are natives of Chechnya.

According to the GUVD (Chief Interior Department) of the Stavropol Territory, the conflict was purely domestic and had no inter-ethnic background: a group of guys (representatives of the Cossack community) decided to stand up for the girl, who complained of an attempt of young people to force her into their car. They wanted to take revenge for the girl, but were shelled from traumatic pistols and firearms.

However, many members of the blogosphere, where serious debates started about what happened Zelenokumsk, are still seeing namely the inter-ethnic context in the events. In this connection, we can remind, in particular, the inter-ethnic conflict with involvement of natives of Chechnya in Kondopoga in 2006; and massacre in the village of Kuschevskaya, Krasnodar Territory.

Kuban under threat of flood again

In the Krasnodar Territory (also known as Kuban by the name of the main river), where some districts were severely affected by a large flood at night on October 16 (17 persons were lost, 7 are missing, 2000 households were destroyed or damaged, several thousands of inhabitants suffered, the total damage from the flood makes about 2.5 billion roubles), relapse of the situation is not excluded.

The emergency warning because of rains was announced in the Tuapse District on November 25. As of November 28, according to the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE), the high water had flooded three houses in the village of Nebug, four houses - in the village of Gorny, and 30 houses - in the village of Shaumyan. A span of the pedestrian bridge across the Elizavetka River was damaged; the opposite bank has 15 households with population of 80 persons, including nine children.

No victims are reported. Now, water left all the houses; residents were not evacuated.

However, a storm warning was announced for the next two days in the Tuapse and Apsheron Districts. The MfE does not exclude a possible massive flooding of dwelling settlements. Rescuers have prepared temporary accommodation centres for residents in case of evacuation because of flooding.

Russia opened door for investments in Abkhazia and South Ossetia

Last week the Russian State Duma ratified the intergovernmental agreement between Russia and South Ossetia on the promotion and mutual protection of investments, which is aimed at creating international-legal conditions and guarantees for entrepreneurial and investment activities of investors from both countries. The State Duma also ratified a similar intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Abkhazia.

The documents provide investors from both parties with fair and equal investment regime, which assumes avoidance of discriminatory measures and creating a fair and equal playing ground with domestic investors or investors from any third countries.

However, as the documents state, the parties retain the right to apply and introduce exemptions from the national regime for foreign investors and their investments.