Watchdog

Soviet-era dissident Vladimir Bukovsky has halted his hunger strike in Britain after a court in Cambridge on May 16 postponed hearings in the child pornography case against him.

The 73-year-old Bukovsky has been charged by British prosecutors of producing and holding indecent images of children.

He began his hunger strike on April 20 to protest the charges.

He also has appealed to the High Court of Justice in London, saying he is a victim of a blackmail campaign by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

During the 1960s and 1970s, Bukovsky spent 12 years in Soviet prisons and psychiatric hospitals on charges of spreading anti-Soviet propaganda.

He has lived in Britain since 1976 and is now a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Bukovsky also has publicly accused the Kremlin of killing former Russian intelligence officer Aleksandr Litvinenko in London with radiation poisoning in 2006.

The May 16 ruling sets back the date for Bukovsky's next hearing until December 12.

With reporting by theins.ru

Police in Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya have reportedly surrounded a village as part of a search for a resident who posted a video on the Internet calling for help from Russian President Vladimir Putin against corrupt local officials.

Russia's Kommersant Daily quoted residents of the village of Kenkhi on May 16 as saying that regional armed police forces have surrounded their village since May 14 and were interrogating all residents to track down a villager named Ramazan Dzhalaldinov.

The 56-year-old Dzhalaldinov, an ethnic Avar, uploaded his video to the Internet on April 14.

In it, he urges Putin to personally intervene in Kenkhi and stop local government officials from extorting bribes from residents.

Dzhalaldinov said in a video posted on the website of the Chernovik newspaper on May 13 that masked arsonists torched his house in Kenkhi after his plea to Putin.

Dzhalaidinov also said he fled to the neighboring Russian region of Daghestan after receiving anonymous death threats.

With reporting by Kommersant and Chernovik