Week in the Caucasus: review of main events on January 20-26

Arrest and removal from office of Deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan Magomedgusen Nasrutdinov; elimination of consequences of freezing rain in Krasnodar Territory and Adygea, which caused electricity and heat supply outages in the regions; Olympic Torch Relay in Volgograd and Rostov Regions, Stavropol Territory and Kalmykia; actions in Georgia and Armenia in support of Ukrainian Euromaidan, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of January 20-26, 2014, prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Dagestan: arrest of former Vice-Premier Magomedgusen Nasrutdinov

In Moscow, on January 21 the court ruled to put Magomedgusen Nasrutdinov, Deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan, detained on suspicion of fraud associated with appropriation in early 2000s of local gas networks, behind bars. On January 23, the head of Dagestan Ramazan Abdulatipov dismissed three members of his government, including Nasrutdinov. On January 24 Abdulatipov said that the Vice-Premier's resignation is not related to his arrest. On the same day in Moscow, Nasrutdinov's defence appealed against the court ruling.

According to the experts polled by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, the prosecution of Magomedgusen Nasrutdinov has to do with redistribution of spheres of influence in Dagestan.

Adygea and Krasnodar Territory: elimination of freezing rain consequences

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 21 the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea were hit by freezing rain. The disaster left 238,000 people without electricity. In the Krasnodar Territory, the public transport was disrupted; hundreds of trees fell down. On January 21, a 16-year-old girl died after an icy tree branch fell and struck her. On January 22, Krasnodar and a number of municipalities were under the state of emergency. In Adygea, residents reported problems with water supply in the settlements with electricity outages. In most of the settlements of the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea, electricity supplies were restored on January 24; and on the same day the central heating was fully restored in Krasnodar; however, some areas were still without electricity. On January 26, the press service of the "Kubanenergo" reported that the distribution grids damaged by the ice storm were fully restored in Krasnodar.

Olympic Torch Relay in Volgograd and Rostov Regions, Stavropol Territory and Kalmykia

On January 19, the Olympic Torch Relay reached the Volgograd Region. On that very day the Olympic Flame visited Uryupinsk. On January 20, the Olympic Torch Relay in Volgograd took place at 20 degrees of frost and under enhanced security measures. Volgograd residents, in their turn, complained about the inconveniences related to blocked streets of the city.

On January 18, in Rostov-on-Don, Pavel Nagibin, an activist of "The Other Russia", and Arkady Zykov, a member of the "Russian Resistance", were arrested for 15 days each. Then, for the same period, they put into custody Vladislav Ryazantsev, the coordinator of the "Left-Wing Front" in the Rostov Region. All the arrests, as suggested by oppositionists' supporters, had to do with the Olympic Torch Relay to be welcomed by the city. Subsequently, Zykov and Nagibin went on hunger strike. On January 21, Cossack cavalry met the flame of the Winter Olympics in the Rostov Region, where torchbearers went running 42 km along the streets of the regional capital.

On January 23, the Stavropol Territory was the first region of Northern Caucasus to welcome the Olympic Torch Relay – the flame of the 2014 Winter Olympics arrived in Pyatigorsk; and on January 24 more than 400 Cossack cavaliers welcomed the main symbol of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Stavropol.

The capital of Kalmykia held the Olympic Torch Relay on January 25. The length of the Elista section was 12 km; it was covered by 51 torchbearers.

Armenia and Georgia support Euromaidan

Euromaidan is a mass protest action, held in central Kiev and other Ukrainian cities starting from November 21. On January 22, Armenian Sergey Nigoyan, who took an active part in Euromaidan activities in Kiev, was lost. He died from a gunshot wound. On January 24, an action in memory of Sergey Nigoyan and other casualties gathered about 100 people in Yerevan. Supporters of Euromaidan in Armenia urged the Ukrainian authorities to stop the violence.

About 300 people gathered on January 22 in front of the former parliamentary building in Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi to express their support to Euromaidan activists in Kiev. The participants held a minute of silence in memory of the casualties. Another rally in support of Euromaidan was held near the Ukrainian Embassy in Tbilisi on January 23. The action was attended by residents of Georgia and Ukraine, journalists and politicians.