Translated material
Not a resort
The President of Karachay-Cherkessia is again threatened with unrest
In addition to Dagestan, the elections on March 11 this year turned out to be very confusing in another North Caucasian republic. On this day, voters were supposed to decide the fate of municipal authorities in the two main cities of Karachay-Cherkessia. But they didn’t decide. Elections in the capital Cherkessk were completely canceled due to numerous violations and the elementary lack of a map of electoral districts. Elections for the mayor and city Duma in the second largest city of the republic, Karachaevsk, took place, but were declared invalid. This outraged supporters of one of the mayoral candidates, businessman Magomed Botashev, who have already threatened mass protests.The newspaper Vremya Novostey wrote in detail about the situation in Cherkessk, which was essentially left without legitimate municipal authorities (see issue dated March 2) . But now the epicenter of the political crisis in Karachay-Cherkessia, caused by the confrontation between the administration of President Mustafa Batdyev and the chairman of the Supreme Court of the Republic Islam Burlakov, who lost the 2003 presidential elections, has again shifted to Karachaevsk.
Over the past week, the city election commission could not muster the courage to announce the voting results. By the end of the week, mutually exclusive reports began to arrive: according to some sources, Magomed Botashev won the race for the post of mayor with a margin of 480 votes; according to others, the current mayor, Sapar Laipanov, remained mayor. At the same time, the Republican Election Commission announced numerous complaints from voters and observers about unprecedented violations during the voting. And even about the facts of attacks on polling stations, during which the attackers beat policemen, smashed ballot boxes, tore seals from the survivors and stuffed ballots en masse. The Karachay election commission timidly denied the news of pogroms at polling stations, but the republican election commission on Wednesday confirmed the fact that seven criminal cases had been opened for violations. According to the deputy head of the republican election commission, Azhmagomed Kataganov, the elections for the mayor and the Duma of Karachaevsk were disrupted at seven polling stations, where more than 56% of voters who came to the ballot boxes voted.
Supporters of Magomed Botashev believe that the elections were canceled on purpose in order to deprive the opposition businessman of a fair victory and retain the post of mayor of Karachaevsk for Sapar Laypanov, a man on President Batdyev’s team. Sapar Laypanov is married to the aunt of Mr. Batdyev's former son-in-law, influential businessman Aliya Kaitov in the republic, who was sentenced last December, along with several accomplices, to 17 years in prison on charges of murdering seven young Karachais. This tragedy in the fall of 2004 led to a rebellion in Cherkessk - two stormings of the residence of Mustafa Batdyev by indignant relatives of the victims. During the unrest in 2004, the relatives were supported by some opposition political figures, who mainly grouped around the Supreme Judge Islam Burlakov.
This long-term conflict, which involves the two main branches of government in the region, has split the Karachai elite in two: both the president and the judge - ethnic Karachais, Russians and Circassians - are not involved in the confrontation. However, it has already led to a political stalemate in the municipality of Cherkessk. The situation in Karachaevsk may contribute to the resumption of mass unrest. Oppositionists supporting Magomed Botashev have already announced their intention to hold a mass protest under the windows of the residence of the President of the Republic. The action was planned for tomorrow, but the organizers of the rally were refused on the pretext that a children's party was planned at the same time at the specified address.
It is characteristic that in the Karachay district a similar situation arose during the elections of the head of the municipality in December 2005. The opposition still claims that the election of the head of the district was won by its candidate, a member of the republican parliament and a representative of one of the prominent and ancient Karachay families, Islam Krymshamkhalov. However, the district is still headed by Eldar Salpagarov. Mr. Salpagarov is married to the daughter of the republic's Deputy Prime Minister Boris Gochiyaev, who in turn is the brother of the wife of the head of the presidential administration, Murat Karaketov. This gives the oppositionists grounds to claim that the post of head of the district is retained by Mr. Salpagarov not so much because of his victory in the elections, but because of his family status.
Sapar Laypanov's family situation did not save him: the temporary duties of the mayor of Karachaevsk were entrusted to one of his deputies, Alik Kipkeev, who, however, is also considered a reliable member of the presidential team. But Sapar Laypanov’s supporters are confident that he will return to work in the near future.
Control over the Karachay region and its center is very important for the leadership of Karachay-Cherkessia, since it is here that the resort assets of the region are located - Dombay, Arkhyz and Teberda, the development of which in the future should bring considerable benefits to the republic and already now, apparently, contributes to its prosperity manuals. However, the Karachay district is also known as a zone of activity of Islamic fundamentalists. It was in Karachaevsk that the first “unofficial” mosque was created in the early 90s, the imam of which, according to one version, for some time was the legendary Achimez Gochiyaev, who was involved in the bombing of houses in Moscow in the fall of 1999 and now heads the fundamentalist underground in the republic. The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Karachay-Cherkessia publicly confirmed at the beginning of this year that Gochiyaev is alive and capable.
The participants in the conflict around the elections to the Karachay municipality, as well as the main warring parties - the administration of Mustafa Batdyev and the opposition united around the Supreme Judge Islam Burlakov, were always not averse to bluntly accusing each other of having connections with Islamic fundamentalists. We can only hope that the seals on the ballot boxes on March 11 were not torn off by jihad warriors.
On the eve of the elections on March 11, the conflict in Karachay-Cherkessia entered a phase of unstable equilibrium associated with the depletion of the resources of the warring parties. But the cancellation of elections in Karachayevsk is quite capable of adding fuel to the weakening flame, even if the children’s holiday planned for tomorrow in Cherkessk takes place, and the number of participants in the protest demonstrations does not exceed, as until now, a couple of hundred people. Supporters of Magomed Botashev announced their intention to seek justice by legal means and appeal to the court the decision of the republican election commission to cancel the elections.
It turns out that the outcome of the conflict in Karachaevsk will depend mainly on the results of the investigation into criminal cases of attacks on polling stations: the party that is convicted of organizing unrest will lose. But the investigation could turn into a complete curiosity: the prosecutor’s office in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic is generally loyal to the president, and the Supreme Court, as already mentioned, is headed by his worst enemy.