Evkurov against sinecure

Ingushetia is looking for methods to eradicate corruption

The Investigation Department for Ingushetia of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office yesterday accused the Deputy Minister of Construction of this republic of forgery and abuse of power. The deputy minister issued certificates for work on the construction of five residential buildings in the village of Yandare, but the work was not actually carried out. The total cost of the project was about 540 million rubles, of which 81 million went missing due to the efforts of the official. The contract was concluded back in 2007 - long before the appointment of the new President of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who declared a merciless fight against corruption one of his priorities. The practice of the North Caucasus is such that this struggle rarely goes beyond demagogic promises or, at best, the quiet resignations of officials who have been completely stealing.

Actual criminal charges are rarely brought, and the investigation by the Ingush Ministry of Construction is certainly a precedent. Moreover, construction was the favorite area for providing ceremonial reporting on outstanding achievements under the former Ingush President Murat Zyazikov. The millions of square meters that were reported to the Kremlin from 2002 to 2008 should, it seems, be enough for the entire republic. And investigators, it seems, will have many more surprising discoveries in this regard.

The end of last week was almost marked by another scandal in Ingushetia related to the fight against corruption. President Yevkurov fired the head of his administration, Ibragim Tochiev, who was appointed immediately after Mr. Yevkurov himself was confirmed in the position. At first, this dismissal was interpreted as a result of Mr. Tochiev’s categorical refusal to sign a letter of resignation of his own free will with an open date. The president allegedly distributed such statements to Ingush officials in order to facilitate the procedure for dismissing the most careless and unscrupulous people. However, it later turned out that the distribution of statements was the initiative of Mr. Tochiev himself. And apparently, the president was not satisfied not so much with the content as with the form of this innovation, about which he was not informed. In Ingushetia itself, in any case, they emphasize that relations between the president and the dismissed head of administration have not deteriorated.

Mr. Tochiev began his career as the head of the Dzheirakh region under the first president, Ruslan Aushev. Therefore, his dismissal was perceived as a weakening of the positions of the Aushev team, some of whose representatives returned to power after the resignation of Murat Zyazikov. Their return was welcomed by the opposition, which for about a year and a half called on the Kremlin to fire Mr. Zyazikov. Now the replacement of the head of the administration has been quick to interpret as a sign of growing tensions between the former oppositionists, who remain the most active part of the republic's civil society, and President Yevkurov. However, the appointment of a presidential press secretary also late last week suggests that Mr. Yevkurov is seeking to prevent a new split. The press secretary was one of the leaders of the opposition youth, lawyer Kaloy Akhilgov, who defended, in particular, the online publication Ingushetia.ru, the closure of which the Zyazikov administration repeatedly sought. And the scandal caused by the murder of the website owner Magomed Evloev in September last year, in fact, became the reason for the early resignation of Mr. Zyazikov.

Mr. Yevkurov is still trying to build trust with the majority of the republic's civilian population so that they cease to sympathize with active militants. This requires not only anti-corruption and personnel measures, but also strict regulation of the work of federal law enforcement agencies in the republic. At a recent meeting with security forces, the president demanded that the police stop at checkpoints any transport moving at night, because it is at night that most of the disappearances without a trace occur, which are then attributed to the special services. The agency reported that the prosecutor of the republic, Yuri Turygin, even suggested that citizens, in self-defense, shoot back at unknown night visitors with available weapons, since no official structures supposedly conduct night special operations. But the prosecutor himself hastened to declare that he did not call anyone to actions that went beyond the scope of Russian legislation.

Meanwhile, the general criminal background in Ingushetia remains very gloomy, although not all incidents are related to terrorism. On Monday, for example, it became known that the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia for Personnel Ruslan Archakov died in an accident - and as always in the Caucasus, few people believe that the fatal collision of the officer’s car with a heavy truck was an accident.

Ivan SUKHOV