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Today, the Russian State Duma has ratified the friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance treaties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which were signed in Moscow on September 17 and on October 20 brought to consideration of the Lower Chamber of the Parliament by President of Russia.

In the opinion of analysts, the interest of Russia in speeding up the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement is exclusively caused by its desire to deploy its troops in the so-called "safety zones" - near the borders of the former NKAO (Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Okrug).

President of Armenia Serzh Sarkisyan is sure that the Karabakh conflict can be settled: if Azerbaijan recognizes the right of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination; if Karabakh has on-land communication with Armenia; and if international organizations and leading countries guarantee safety for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Tengiz Ablotiya, the Tbilisi-based expert of the Centre of Extreme Journalism, has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that villages are now being built in the territory of Georgia for the projected capacity of 15,000 residents - exactly the Georgian population of South Ossetia.

Georgian and Russian experts have treated the decision of the Hague Tribunal on the Georgia-versus-Russia suit on preliminary measures as "well-balanced". The main litigation and consideration of Russia's guilt in the conflict will take up to two years.

Today, on October 28, the "Interfax" has hosted a press conference organized by representatives of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" and the "Demos" Centre on the outcomes of their trip to Georgia. They showed the photos made during the visit.

The son of the first President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia and oppositional politician Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, who had been arrested on suspicion of espionage for Russia and attempt of coup d'etat, is now at large on bail worth 20,000 laris (over 14,000 US dollars).

On October 23, the European Court on Human Rights considered the case "Magomed Musaev et al versus Russia" on disappearance of three residents of Chechnya: Said-Rakhman Musaev, Odes Mityaev and Magomed Magomadov, and found that the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was breached in relation of these persons.

The Svetloyar District Court of Volgograd has passed a verdict of guilty to two employees of the Svetloyar ROVD. The former district militiaman Shamil Bolatkhanov and militiaman of the patrol service platoon Sergey Kabdulov were found guilty of beating, when on duty in February and March 2005, citizens, trying to knock confessions of committing crimes out of them.

The information that among the citizens kidnapped on October 23 in Ordzhonikidzevskaya village, Sunzha District of Ingushetia, there could be three Chechen militiamen was not confirmed.

On October 20, Paris hosted another consultation round between Russian human rights activists and EU representatives. The former had noted the fact of activation of armed underground in Northern Caucasus in reply to tortures, extrajudicial executions and preventive violence exercised by power agents.

On October 27, representatives of the Baku OSCE office, US, French and Norwegian embassies and local human rights organizations paid a visit to Colony No. 14 to meet the convicted satirist of the "Azadlyg" (Freedom) newspaper Mirza Sakit (Sakit Zakhidov).

Armen Arutyunyan, Ombudsman in Armenia, gave his consent to take part in the work of the newly created group, the mission of which will be to collect on the events of March 1 in Yerevan. The Ombudsman has motivated this decision by saying that the work of the group will have more positive than negative aspects.

Russian and Georgian experts believe that recurrence of August events is possible in Georgia in near future.

Sergey Shamba, Abkhazian Minister of Foreign Affairs, sent a letter to Zhang Esui, Chairman of the UN Security Council, because of the aggravation of the situation in the Abkhazian Gali District, which borders on Georgia.