Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 10 – Yunus-Bek
Yevkurov was caught between his duties as a Russian officer and his membership
in the Ingush nation, Yelena Khrustalova says; and at the end of his time in
office, he opted to work as a Russian officer rather than an Ingush politician.
That led Yevkurov to make the land deal for which the Ingush people could never
forgive him.
It also meant that when the population
rose against him in protests last fall and again this spring, he had nowhere to
go and so dug it, relying on repression to try to maintain order. But she tells
Sergey Zharkov of Prague’s Caucasus Times that “the Ingush were simply tired”
of him and he had to go (caucasustimes.com/ru/proshloe-i-budushhee-ingushskoj-politiki/).
According to
Khrustalova, a longtime specialist on the North Caucasus, Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov
doesn’t face this kind of “terrible” dilemma “because he isn’t a military man.” And as a result, “he has much greater room
for maneuver.” Zelimkhan Ozdoyev, who
knows Kalimatov well, agrees but says there is another problem.
The new republic head, Ozdoyev
continue, is someone who believes in following the letter of the law regardless
of where that leads. He prefers openness in prosecutorial and legal actions.
But he focuses above all on the texts of laws. That could be a disaster, and
the new head must learn to show a certain “flexibility” or there will be
problems.
Khrustalova agrees and says that it
is too early to tell what will happen. Kalimatov so far as avoided publicity while
Yevkurov wanted to be in the media constantly. The new head is spending most of
his time putting his team together, a wise decision but one that puts off many important
decisions, including decisions about relations with power blocs in society.
According to these experts, “the
people and society of Ingushetia expect from the new head the resolution of the
main question” which sparked the protests and Yevkurov’s departure, the
question of land. They expect him,
opposition leader Magomed Mutsolgov, expect that above all else.
But they also expect the release of
the political prisoners and the restoration of a popularly elected republic
head. It is far from clear whether
Makhmudov can deliver on any of these demands.
And hanging over these issues, the
SKFO Telegram Channel says, is the issue of demarcating and formalizing the border
of Ingushetia with North Ossetia. Under Russian law, the guidance of the new
head above all else, that task is supposed to be completed by early next year.
Khrustalova is pessimistic about the
future. If Kalimatov does not show some progress toward the position of the
opposition on its key issues, the North Ossetia border question could easily
lead to the radical destabilization of the republic and even its descent into
the worst kind of violence.
No comments:
Post a Comment