Paul
Goble
Staunton, October 26 – Vladimir Stygashev,
the speaker of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Khakassia, yesterday
accused the FSB of arbitrary and illegal actions in putting pressure on
deputies and officials and warned his fellow deputies that the Russian security
service “can come after anyone” unless something is done.
In recent weeks, the FSB has been
investigating the construction industry in Khakassia, a republic of just over
500,000 people in southern Siberia whose titular nationality, a Turkic one,
forms only 12 percent of the population. Ethnic Russians form 82 percent of the
total. Among the deputies are some connected with construction.
This unusual attack by a senior
republic official on the FSB was first reported by the republic’s own news
portal (19rus.info:81/index.php/vlast-i-politika/item/74672-vladimir-shtygashev-kollegi-zavtra-mogut-prijti-za-lyubym-iz-vas)
and then was picked up by the Tatar-Bashkir Service of Radio Liberty (https://www.idelreal.org/a/28817095.html).
Stygashev
promised to write to the head of the FSB in his republic and demand both an
explanation and a new approach.
His
criticism of the FSB comes on the heels of a similar case in Murmansk where the
governor complained that the force structures there have been trying to put
pressure on her both directly and through her staff, apparently hoping to force
her out (kommersant.ru/doc/3447865 and thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy-life-and-public/2017/10/murmansk-governor-i-am-under-big-pressure-law).
Her response, she said, was to
appeal to Vladimir Putin who alone appointed her and who alone can remove her.
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