Sunday, September 15, 2019

Kalimatov Names Russian from Outside Ingushetia to Head Republic Government


Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 11 – Newly confirmed Ingush head Makhmud-Ali Kalimatv has named Konstantin Surikov, a 48-year-old Russian banker from Tomsk with no ties to that North Caucasus republic to be his prime minister. And while Surikov was easily confirmed 27 to one by the republic’s Popular Assembly, many will see this as a slap in the face of the Ingush nation.

            This is the second such case in the North Caucasus in recent years when both the top officials in a republic are not connected with a republic or its titular nationality. The first was in Daghestan where last year Vladimir Vasiliyev appointed as head of the republic government an official from Tatarstan (doshdu.com/glavoj-pravitelstva-ingushetii-stal-bankovskij-funkcioner-i-on-nemestnyj/).

            It had long been a source of pride among non-Russian groups that at the end of the Soviet period and even more after 1991, they had as their direct rulers people of the same nationality who had some experience in their republic.  Vladimir Putin appears to be going back to the earlier Soviet practice of using outsiders and Russians as proconsuls. 

            The big story of the day, however, involved the funeral of an ethnic Russian Pavel Zagilov, who lived his entire life in Ingushetia, had converted to Islam, and spoke the language, who died while in a Russian prison after refusing to work for the FSB against Ingush targets.  He was remembered as a true friend of the Ingush people (zamanho.com/?p=12436).

            Meanwhile, there were two other developments in the courts.  A Nalchik curt extended the detention of Ingush activist Ibragim Dugiyev until December 15. He is charged with attacking police during the March demonstrations and faces up to ten years in prison if convicted (memohrc.org/ru/news_old/sud-ostavil-v-zaklyuchenii-ocherednogo-uchastnika-ingushskih-protestov).

            And jurors refused to convict three men accused of attacking Imam Khamzat Chumakov, a reminder that when trials take place in front of juries and not just judges, the results are far less predictable (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/340091/).

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