Translated material
Stand up. The court will leave
Dual power ends in Karachay-Cherkessia
The federal center finally found the strength to intervene in the protracted confrontation between the judicial and executive authorities in Karachay-Cherkessia . The name of the permanent head of the Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia Islam Burlakov was not on the list of candidates for this position, which the High Qualification Board of Judges submitted to the head of state for consideration.Last Friday, the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Southern Federal District presented certificates to the supreme judges of Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, Krasnodar Territory and Rostov Region. Mr. Burlakov, whose powers expire on September 1, was not among them. The embassy reported that there were five people on the list of candidates for this position, including the current chairman, but the highest qualification board reduced the number of candidates to four.
For four years, Karachay-Cherkessia remained a textbook example of a secondary region that the federal authorities simply did not get around to, even despite the turbulent events that were developing there. In 2003, presidential elections were held in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, which, although they were calmer than the previous ones, which almost ended in an armed conflict, resulted in a fierce confrontation within the largest Karachay community. Three Karachai candidates competed for the presidency - banker Mustafa Batdyev, the then-current president of the republic, General Vladimir Semenov, and the head of the Supreme Court, Islam Burlakov. In the second round, Mr. Batdyev overtook Mr. Semenov . But supporters of the latter rallied around Mr. Burlakov, who finished third in the first round, and formed a powerful opposition.
In the fall of 2004 , President Batdyev's son-in-law Aliy Kaitov became an accomplice in the murder of seven Karachais , believed to be connected with the division of shares in the republic's largest chemical plant. The murder led to popular unrest and even an assault on the presidential residence, in which the opposition actively participated. The conviction of the now former presidential son-in-law, handed down last winter, would have been a foregone conclusion even if the case had not been under the special control of federal authorities: it was considered in the Supreme Court, whose chairman remained an implacable political opponent of the president.
Another arena of confrontation was elections. The capital of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Cherkessk, has been completely deprived of any legitimate government bodies for several months. The struggle between the presidential and judicial groups for the capital's mayor's office turned out to be so intense that the city assembly elections scheduled for March 11 of this year had to be simply cancelled. The situation with the results of the municipal elections of the last two years in Karachaevsk and the Karachaevsky district, through which the route to the famous ski resorts of Dombay passes, remains no less difficult. Any attempt to challenge in court the success of a candidate supported by the president was, as they say, doomed to success - although the republic notes that even the most scandalous court decisions were not made without sufficient formal grounds.
Meanwhile, the resources of the parties were so depleted that neither of them could win. The president suffered too much image loss in connection with the case of Aliya Kaitov, and the judge, despite the sympathies of the Karachay opposition, was unable to gain sufficient support from the Circassian and Russian communities and was deprived of access to administrative resources, which remained in the hands of Mr. Batdyev’s supporters. The unprecedented confrontation between the two branches of government has reached a dead end. And now, finally, Moscow and Rostov have shown readiness to intervene in the situation.
Among the candidates for the post of head of the Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia were Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic Ruslan Kachkarov, Associate Professor at the Law Faculty of Rostov University Alexander Binkovsky, Chairman of the Taganrog City Court Mikhail Tarasenko and Head of the Industrial Court of Stavropol Vasily Lukyanchenko. The appointment of Mr. Kachkarov would probably be too demonstrative. And turning the court from a sparring partner of the presidential administration into its department also does not look like a particularly attractive solution. Therefore, newcomers from other cities in the Southern Federal District have the best chances.
We should not forget that the powers of Mustafa Batdyev himself expire in less than a year and a half. Despite certain economic successes and the obvious sympathy of Dmitry Kozak, his presidential record is replete with nuances that may be difficult to compatible with the extension of his powers - such as the unrest in Cherkessk in the fall of 2004.