Kalimatov’s Criticism of Ingush Police Highlights His Weakness Not His Strength, Buzurtanov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 6 – Many Ingush have been surprised by the vigorous way in which Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov has criticized the republic’s traffic police for their failures which led to the deadly outcome of the attack on the Magas police post on New Year’s Eve, Portal Six commentator Akhmed Buzurtanov says.

            But they shouldn’t be: Kalimatov has lashed out at the traffic police because they are the only force structure he controls. All others are in the hands of Aleksandr Matovnikov, presidential plenipotentiary for the North Caucasus. As a result, Kalimatov’s words reflect his weakness, not his strength (6portal.ru/posts/месть-матовникова-и-безволие-калимат/).

            “It is obvious,” Buzurtanov says, that Kalimatov “does not have any real authority to give a complete assessment of what has happened and call to responsibility those who should have provided control for the fulfillment of the conditions of their own defense and the security of citizens.” 

            The following criminal statistics make that clear, he continues. “During the first 11 months of last year in the region were identified 36 terrorist crimes. And although this is less than in the year before last – then there were 54 – it is obvious that the terrorist threat in Ingushetia hasn’t disappeared and there is no basis for relaxing.”

            There are two problems here, the commentator says.  On the one hand, Matovnikov has oversight of all the siloviki in the region and thus is responsible for their actions but can’t be held accountable by any republic leader, including Kalimatov, when the force structures fail to do their jobs.

And on the other, the presidential plenipotentiary is supposed to be using these powers to fight terrorism rather than engaging in repression; but in fact as the record shows, Matovnikov hasn’t been conducting “a struggle with real threats but rather at the suppression of civic activity” in Ingushetia in the first instance.

Whenever Ingush activists appeal to Kalimatov about these repressions, he either simply refuses to meet with them or he “declares that nothing depends on him.”  Unfortunately, with regard to statements like the latter, nothing really does.  He is “too politically weak a figure” to challenge Matovnikov and so he lashes out at the police to make it appear he is doing something.