Moscow Appointees in Ingushetia Invariably First Blame Their Predecessors and Then the People, Mutsolgov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 1 – Every new Ingush leader appointed by Moscow, when explaining the problems he faces, first blames his predecessor for all of them and then, when that no longer works, blames the people he has been sent to rule over. But neither he nor the Kremlin who sent him ever takes responsibility for what is going on, Magomed Mutsolgov says.

            The Ingush commentator says that the only mistake of the population is that “we allow, in spite of the law, justice and wisdom such an attitude to all of us, to our country and to our future,” an attitude that is insupportable because it is obvious to ever more people that Moscow and Moscow’s appointees always follow this script (kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342/posts/41992).

            At the same time, each new Ingush leader takes credit for anything positive and even for negative developments that can be presented in a distortedly but positive way, often successfully convincing their Moscow bosses that all is well but increasingly convincing those they rule that they are not to be relied upon.

            The successes the republic leaders have in this regard are far greater in Moscow than in Ingushetia not only because they make more of an effort in that direction, Mutsolgov says; but also because “the federal center does not draw any corresponding conclusions” about the ways in which Moscow sends money and personnel but nothing changes.

           

            The center “does not take any means to punish officials incapable of changing the situation or, what is still worse for the federal center itself, occupy themselves with eyewash by manipulating very kinds of statistics” even as they waste the money and drive the republic toward the bottom – and even as they do so again and again and again.