KBR Violates Proportional Representation of Nationalities, Openly Discriminating Against Kabardins, Activists Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 12 – One of the most effective ways of keeping the peace in any multi-national republics is to allocate positions according to a specific formula reflecting the proportions of different ethnic groups in the population. Violation of that principle almost always leads to trouble.

            In Kabardino-Balkaria, the Committee for Peace and International Accord has sent an open letter to republic head Kazbek Kokov saying that the authorities have “crudely violated” that principle, with ethnic Russians and Balkars overrepresented and Kabardins (Circassians) seriously underrepresented in the federal force structures there.

            Still worse, the letter says, the more senior the position, the more likely is the violation of this principle to occur and along with the injection of people from the outside, the Kabardins are the biggest losers (caucasustimes.com/ru/v-kabardino-balkarii-narushaetsja-princip-nacionalnogo-pariteta-vo-vlasti/).

            The letter gives the ethnic composition of the 12 most senior positions in the federal force structures as an example.  Seven are ethnic Russians, more than twice the 22 percent they form of the population; four are Balkars, eight percent more than the 25 percent their numbers in the population; but only one is a Kabardin, despite that nation having 57 percent of the population.

Unless this is rectified, three things are almost inevitable. First, the Kabardins are likely to view the republic leadership and Moscow as pursuing an anti-Kabardin line and respond with growing hostility. Second, they are ever more likely to respond positively to calls for them to identify as Circassians in next year’s census and link up with other Circassians beyond the KBR.

And third, and from Moscow’s point of view, most ominously, the discrimination that the figures the letter provides are certain to cause ever more Kabardins not only to identify as Circassians but to reject the current divisions ethnic and territorial Moscow has imposed and support calls for the formation of a single Circassian republic.

The growth of such a movement would overturn the existing divisions in the western half of the North Caucasus and transform the largely peaceful situation there into something resembling the protests in Ingushetia and Daghestan, significantly complicating Moscow’s control of the region.

Because of that risk, the leadership of the KBR will be under some pressure to correct the situation. If it doesn’t, it will have only itself and Moscow to blame for the consequences.