Kalimatov Confirmed by Popular Assembly as Ingush Head

Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 8 – With 27 votes in favor (out of 32), Makhud-Ali Kalimatov was confirmed by the republic’s Popular Assembly as head of Ingushetia for a five-year term, an election with no surprises that was described by one writer as “a profanation of democracy under the pretext of stability” (6portal.ru/posts/выборы-главы-ингушетии-профанация/).

            Commentator Anton Chablin reminded his readers that Ingushetia was the first federal subject where the people lost the right to directly elect their head, a development that he described as “a bad example” for all others because it means that the Kremlin views the region as “almost ‘a reservation’” that it has the right to run without regard to the population.

            The same day, voters in most Ingush municipalities cast their ballots for local deputies. According to observers, there was massive falsification, with dead people casting ballots and the like, all to show that participation was not affected by the boycott calls and that the outcome – victories for the establishment candidates – was the will of the people (zamanho.com/?p=12415).

            This performance was conducted by Muza Yevloyev, the head of the republic’s election commission who the Zamanho news agency said was not only a relative but a worthy continuer of former prime minister Zyalimkhan Yevloyev who also “did everything to satisfy orders from above.” 

            Following his confirmation as republic head, Kalimatov made an address to the nation in which he said that “our main task is security and improving the quality of life, well-being, and the economy of our citizens,” ignoring all the problems that most agitate the people of Ingushetia (ingushetia.ru/news/obrashchenie_glavy_respubliki_ingushetiya_m_m_kalimatova_k_narodu_ingushetii/).

            What Kalimatov did do was to dismiss the previous republic government and continue replacing senior officials – 18 of whom have now resigned – and reducing the number of ministries by a large but as yet unspecified number (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/339993/) and (capost.media/news/politika/v-ingushetii-kolichestvo-chlenov-pravitelstva-sushchestvenno-sokratitsya-). He also named Mukharbek Barakhoyev  to the Russian Federation Council (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/339995/).

            Adding insult to the injury most Ingush feel because they did not have a voice in the change of borders of their republic with Chechnya, the Chechen authorities held referenda on two border changes within that neighboring republic, allowing the Chechens to vote on something the Ingush have not yet been (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/339982/).

            And at the same time, the All-National Commission of the Ingush People for Reviewing Questions Connected with the Definition of the Borders of Ingushetia, which the First World Congress of the Ingush People created in October 2018 released a report calling for an atlas of historical maps showing where the borders of Ingushetia have been (fortanga.org/2019/09/obsuzhdenie-tekushhih-voprosov-v-chasti-nauchnyh-izyskanij-obshhenatsionalnoj-komissii-ingushskogo-naroda/).