Vodka rally in Karachay-Cherkessia

The authorities of Karachay-Cherkessia are drowning competitors in vodka
At the end of last week, the first protest rally in the history of the republic against the policies of the authorities took place in the capital of Karachay-Cherkessia, Cherkessk. Having started with demands to stop repressions against the local company Mercury, the protesters ended with calls for the resignation of the head of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic Vladimir Khubiev and the holding of popular elections for the head of the republic.

The rally, which was attended by about six thousand people, was organized by employees of the Circassian company "Mercury". Until recently, this company, which produces vodka and mineral water, was the mainstay of the local economy: taxes paid by the company amounted to a quarter of the republican and almost half of the city budget.
However, for more than a month now, Mercury has been idle, its warehouses have been sealed, and a criminal case has been filed against its management on charges of tax evasion. The reason was the detention in the Stavropol Territory of a KamAZ truck with 10 thousand bottles of non-excise vodka, obtained, according to the driver, from the Mercury. As a result of numerous checks and searches, neither excise-free vodka nor other unaccounted products were found on the Mercury, and the detained driver refused his previous testimony. However, the case against the company was not dropped, which is why Mercury, according to estimates from its leaders, suffered losses of 15 billion old rubles.
The persistent desire of the authorities to “slaughter” almost the only “goose that lays golden eggs” in the republic is explained by employees and managers of Mercury as purely political reasons. The fact is that the ex-president of the company Stanislav Derev was elected mayor of Cherkessk last fall. He won, despite the antipathies of the leaders of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, and more than convincingly - gaining 75% of the votes. Now many in the republic consider Derev a real contender for the post of head of Karachay-Cherkessia, which cannot please the leaders of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. Therefore, the blow to Mercury was considered a blow to its former leader and current mayor.
True, the fate of the elections themselves is not yet entirely clear. In the spring of 1995, during a period of confrontation between the executive and representative branches of government in the republic, which ended only after the intervention of Moscow, the parliament of Karachay-Cherkessia adopted a very peculiar law, according to which the head of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic is appointed by the President of Russia with the consent of the People's Assembly. As a result, Karachay-Cherkessia turned out to be the last Russian region whose leader was not elected (even by parliament), but appointed “from above.” However, this does not bother the opponents of the current head of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Vladimir Khubiev: at the rally, an organizing committee was created that will begin collecting signatures for an appeal to Boris Yeltsin demanding the resignation of the head of the republic and holding a popular election of a new leader in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic.
MAXIM Kommersant-KHRUSTALEV, DMITRY Kommersant-KAMYSHEV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 11 dated January 27, 1998, p. 2

Authors:

Dmitry Kamyshev