A number of online resources of Dagestan report about concentration of Russian troops in the mountains regions of Dagestan, bordering with Georgia and Azerbaijan. In particular, local sources in Botlikh region report about large gathering of manpower and equipment in the area, according to the website Vdagestan.com.
According to the same sources, near the village of Sagada, an armored personnel carrier (APC) fell in the canyon and exploded. As a result, the Russian military servants died. Local residents report that the military forces are going to block forest, and to strike them from air. According to some sources, the goal of all these preparations is to destroy winter mountain bases of the Mujaheds in Dagestan. According to others, they prepare for military action against Georgia.
Some months ago, a well-known military expert, Pavel Felgenhauer, said that Russia is prepared to deploy troops into Georgia in case of military action against by USA against Iran. Moscow will take this step to unlock its military base in Armenia, which can be blocked, as now, its supply is through Iran.
According to a former commander of the Russian forces in Transcaucasia, Yuri Netkachev, "probably, it will be necessary to use military means to violate the Georgian transport blockade and create transport corridors leading to Armenia (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, December 15)."
Concentration of troops near the border with Georgia is under the guise of "strategic" military exercises "Caucasus-2012", which is scheduled for September. In the 2008, the exercises "Caucasus-2008" allowed Moscow to deploy secretly forces that successfully invaded Georgia in August. In recent months, the Russian troops in the occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been significantly strengthened with new weapons and units of paratroopers.
Experts do not rule out the desire of Moscow to make pressure on Tbilisi during the parliamentary elections in October to support the forces in Georgia, which will seek the resignation of Mikhail Saakashvili. -02В-
Politics
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The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OPHRD), a joint program of the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has called for the urgent release of activist Rufat Safarov from prison in Azerbaijan. It has launched a campaign in support of the Azerbaijani human rights defender. https://www.omct.org/en/resources/urgent-interventions/arbitrary-detention-and-judicial-harassment-against-rufat-safarov
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This year, the laureate of the annual Nargiz Prize, awarded for efforts in the fight for democracy, was Akif Gurbanov, chairman of the board of the Resplatforma (Platform of the III Republic) movement, who is under arrest.
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The U.S. will prohibit the issuing of visas for nearly a dozen more individuals responsible for undermining democracy in Georgia, bringing the total number to over 100, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
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The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has expressed condolences to the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, following the tragic incident in the city of Magdeburg. "We are deeply shocked by the news of the deaths and injuries resulting from the tragic incident that took place at the Christmas market in Magdeburg," the message reads.
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