Protest in Nalchik (Republican news agency)
Demonstrations were held in several North Caucasian cities on Sunday as part of a nationwide protest against Russia’s upcoming pension reforms. Rallies in Cherkessk, Makhachkala, and Nalchik, the capitals of Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Daghestan, were organised by the regional branches of the Communist Party of Russia. [Read more…]
The 19 August conference in Nalchik (/kbr.ru)
A conference took place in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, on Sunday on the preservation of the Circassian language. Participants voiced a hope that a long-running issue over the creation of a single alphabet for East and West Circassian, the language’s two primary dialects, could soon be resolved.
Kabardino-Balkaria's Centre for Standardisation, Metrology, and Testing (Aslan Urumov /OC Media)
The director of Kabardino-Balkaria’s state Centre for Standardisation, Sultan Eshtrekov, has threatened to take former employees complaining of abuse to court for slander. A number of people dismissed by Eshtrekov have accused the director of forcing employees to pay him a part of their salaries, as well as embezzling money meant for construction work.
28 July rally in Nalchik (Aslan Urumov /OC Media)
More than 500 people gathered in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, on Saturday to protest Russia’s pension reforms raising the retirement age by 5 years for men and 8 years for women. Similar protests took place simultaneously in Kabardino-Balkaria’s second city, Prokhladny, as well as dozens of cities throughout Russia.
One-person protest of activist Lidiya Zhigunova in front of Kabardino-Balkaria’s Government House (Lidiya Zhigunova /Facebook)
The authorities in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, prohibited a protest against amendments to the federal law On Education which were planned across 12 Russian subjects on 17 July. Activists in Nalchik instead held a number of single person protests against the controversial law two days later.
The Nalchiksky state farm where the city authorities create an illegal dump. In the background, abandoned stables (Aslan Urumov /OC Media)
The trials began in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, on Tuesday of two brothers accused of attacking a police officer. Aslan Iritov, the chairman of the Volny Aul NGO both of whose hands have been amputated, and his younger brother Beslan face up to five years in prison if convicted.
The Hydrometallurgical Plant in Nalchik (Screenshot /YouTube)
Authorities in Kabardino-Balkaria have been promoting ambitious plans to kickstart the republic’s industry with a new hydrometallurgical plant. But for ‘environmental reasons’, and supposed archaeological discoveries at the site, the plans — the estimated cost of which had began to spiral — may now be permanently on ice.
River Nalchik (Kazbek Tashev/OC Media)
Dredging works in the River Nalchik floodplain are allowing private entrepreneurs to unlawfully appropriate lands in the river’s ‘protective zone’, and are destroying the valley’s ecosystem.
Nart Ismail with his family
There are more than 1,200 Syrian Circassians living in Kabardino-Balkaria. They came to their historical homeland to escape the horrors of war, but integrating into the local community is not easy.
Last weekend, a member of the group of Chechen militants which clashed with security forces on 11 January in the republic’s capital, Grozny, was detained. Imran Dasayev, a 29-year-old native of the town of Shali managed to hide in a nearby forest during a battle in the vicinity of the village of Geldagen. The search operation lasted for several days. Dasayev was found in Grozny, near a shopping mall. According to official sources, he resisted arrest, throwing a grenade at the security forces, who managed to take him alive.
