Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

RFE/RL Caucasus Report 26.04.2013 A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the countries of the South Caucasus and Russia's North Caucasus region. HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE NORTH CAUCASUS? TAKE OUR WEEKLY QUIZ AND FIND OUT! For more stories on the Caucasus, please visit and bookmark our Caucasus page .

 

A Week After Arrest, More Unknowns Than Knowns In Boston Bombing Case It's been a week since police suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev following a gunbattle that led to the death of his older brother and fellow suspect, Tamerlan. Evidence now suggests the ethnic Chechen immigrants may have been independent radicals motivated by resentment of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. More   A Trip Into Baku's 12th-Century Old City In December 2000, the Old City of Baku, including the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and Maiden Tower, became the first location in Azerbaijan to be classified as a world heritage site by UNESCO.  More   Boston Bombing Suspects' Parents Say Sons Are Innocent Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the parents of Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are continuing to maintain their sons' innocence. On April 25, they held an emotional news conference in Makhachkala, the capital of Russia's republic of Daghestan. (Reuters) More   Tsarnaevs' Representatives Talk To Reporters In an interview with journalists in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, a lawyer and a human rights activist who are helping the parents of suspected Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev talk about the status of the case and what might happen to Tamerlan's body. (RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service) More   Putin Talks About Boston Bombings, Navalny, Berezovsky In Q&A Session In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hopes the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings will bring Russia and the United States closer together in combating terrorism. More   Tsarnaev Parents Questioned By U.S. U.S. officials have met with the parents of suspected Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Daghestan. More   Many In North Caucasus Believe Boston Bombing Suspects Are Innocent North Caucasus residents appear to have strong misgivings about the alleged involvement of brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombings. Despite evidence provided by U.S. investigators, many in the Russian region believe the two were set up by U.S. authorities. More   Turkey's Muslim Armenians Emerge From Hiding Part of a small community of ethnic Armenian Muslims in eastern Turkey helped mark Armenia's Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24 in a rare public display of their heritage a century after fear and persecution drove them underground. More   U.S. Officials Question Tsarnaevs' Mother U.S. officials in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Daghestan have met for a second day with the mother of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. More   Wife Of Boston Bomb Suspect 'Shocked' The widow of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamarlan Tsarnaev says news of her late husband’s suspected involvement in the April 15 terror attack that killed three people and injured 270 came as "an absolute shock." More   The World's Coolest McDonald's Is In Batumi, Georgia On the heels of the largest KFC in the world in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, comes a spectacular new McDonald’s restaurant in Georgia’s Black Sea port city of Batumi, designed by Harvard-educated architect Giorgi Khmaladze. More   Chechen Leader Has His Ministers On The Ropes Ramzan Kadyrov has come up with a novel way to punish his subordinates, punching his sports minister in the boxing ring as a way of reprimanding him for his building's "shoddy appearance." More   The World's Coolest McDonald's Is In Batumi, Georgia You might not be "lovin’ it," but there’s no way you’re not going to have an opinion about it.  On the heels of the largest KFC in the world in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, comes a spectacular new McDonald’s restaurant in Georgia’s Black Sea port city of Batumi, designed by Harvard-educated architect Giorgi Khmaladze.   More   Mystery Swirls Around Boston Bombing Suspect's Trip To Daghestan As more details emerge about the backgrounds of the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects, questions are being focused on Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the six months he spent last year in restive southern Russia. Could the experience have solidified his radicalism? RFE/RL correspondent Tom Balmforth is in Makhachkala, the Daghestani capital, and spoke to Tsarnaev’s aunt, Patimat Suleimanova, about her nephew. More   Daghestan School Recalls Boston Bombing Suspects Employees at School No. 1 in the Daghestani capital, Makhachkala, remember Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who attended the school in 2001 and 2002. More   Interview: North Caucasus Insurgency Was Possible Influence On Boston Suspects Investigators are looking into possible ties between Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Chechen brothers suspected of staging the Boston marathon, and Islamist insurgents in the North Caucasus. The region’s biggest militant group, the Caucasus Emirate has denied involvement. But Ivan Sukhov, a respected North Caucasus expert, says the suspects nonetheless may have been influenced by Islamic rebels. More   Azeri Foreign Minister Makes Israel Trip Elmar Mamadyarov has become Azerbaijan's first foreign minister to make an official visit to Israel. More   Daghestani Insurgency Denies Any Role In Boston Bombings The Daghestani wing of the North Caucasus insurgency has formally denied any role in the Boston marathon bombings. In a brief statement posted on April 21 on the website vDagestan, its leaders stress that their primary enemy is Russia and they “are not engaged in military hostilities with the United States.” More   Boston Bombings Suspect Indicted In a statement, the Justice Department said Tsarnaev has also has been charged with one count of malicious destruction of property by means of deadly explosives. More   Interview: Father Of Boston Bombing Suspects Says Situation Is 'Clear Setup' As media outlets scramble to understand more about the suspected Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, many relatives linked to the family in Makhachkala, Daghestan, are declining to talk to journalists.Nonetheless, the men's father, Anzor Tsarnaev, did speak from an undisclosed location via telephone to RFE/RL’s Tom Balmforth and the Associated Press in Makhachkala on April 21. More   Father Of Boston Bombing Suspects Seeks 'Justice' The father of Boston Marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev insists he wants come to the United States to seek justice for his sons who he claims are victims of a "clear setup." More   Kyrgyz Former Neighbors Talk About Tsarnaevs, North Caucasus Ties Following the death of one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings and the capture of the other, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service visited the ethnic Chechen family's former hometown to unravel their peripatetic background. More   Former Neighbors On Tsarnaevs, Suspected Boston Bombers Residents in the Kyrgyz village of Tokmok, where the family of Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lived for generations, talk about the young men's early ties to Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya. They also express disbelief that the Tsarnaev boys could have carried out such a horrific attack, saying everyone has "only good things" to say about them. Produced by Ulanbek Asanalyev, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service More   Fugitive Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Caught Nineteen-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second of two suspects in the deadly Boston Marathon bombing, was captured and taken to a Boston-area hospital on April 19 after police found him hiding in a boat being stored in a backyard in Watertown, Massachusetts. Dzhokhar's 26-year-old brother and fellow suspect, Tamerlan, was killed in a firefight earlier in the day. U.S. President Barack Obama said the arrest closed what he called "an important chapter in this tragedy," which left at least four people dead and at least 174 others injured over the course of five dramatic days. (AP video) More   Police Capture Second Boston Bombing Suspect Authorities in Watertown, Massachusetts, say the second of two suspects in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is alive and in police custody. More   U.S. Issues Country Reports On Human Rights Practices The U.S. State Department has released its "Country Reports On Human Rights Practices" for 2012, highlighting crackdowns on civil society, struggles for democratic change, and threats to freedom of expression. More   Interview: More About Tsarnaev Brothers And Their Ancestral Homeland What do we know about the Tsarnaev brothers -- the ethnic Chechens who are suspected of perpetrating the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15 that killed three people and injured 170 others -- and their ancestral homeland? RFE/RL Central Newsroom Director Jeremy Bransten sat down with Aslan Doukaev, director of RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service, for some insight. More   Czechs Aghast As Twitter Users Conflate Them With Boston's 'Chechen' Suspects (3RD UPDATE) As information emerged about the primary suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, a string of tweets was erroneously linking the "Chechen" suspects with "Czechs." More   Profile: Tamerlan And Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Two men identified as suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings are brothers of Chechen origin, raised in Kyrgyzstan, who moved about a decade ago to the United States. More   Headmaster Of Tsarnaev Brothers' Former School The headmaster of Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's former school in the Russian republic of Daghestan, Temirmagomed Davydov, says they all left Makhachkala for the United States in March 2002. (Reuters video) More