Tkachev, come on, goodbye!

Kuban Governor Alexander Tkachev calls for the creation of Cossack squads in the region in order to push Caucasians out of the region and pursue a special migration policy towards them. He stated this at a meeting of the chiefs of the Krasnodar police. The governor's speech was quoted by many media outlets. The Public Chamber intends to appeal to the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to check Tkachev's statements for inciting ethnic hatred. The public is outraged and once again demands the immediate resignation of the governor.

Tkachev’s speech is now the most discussed topic in the Caucasian blogosphere. Bloggers of the Caucasian republics reminded the governor who were the owners of this land 150 years ago, and all his chain-tsapko-chain-binders, and the gold winners of the Olympics - the Caucasians.

A well-known blogger and lawyer in Dagestan, Rasul Kadiev, went further - andwrote in his blog what would happen if Cossack squads were created:

“Over time, the Cossacks, who will be given the right to protect the wealth of the region from illegal migrants, justifying their existence and trying to increase their importance, will expand illegal migration to such proportions that it will be wherever the Cossacks want to extend their power.

Forms and methods of struggle can be different:

— Cossack posts at the entrances to the region, places at which will eventually be sold;

- Cossack patrols in the most dangerous areas - such as markets, with the indispensable determination of who among the Cossacks is tough enough to protect the Motherland in the market;

— special operations using emergency regimes;

— the war against migrants will be bold and principled, therefore cruel and, most importantly, without deadlines.

But for this there is very little left. Usually the war against migrants begins with a murder, or better yet, with a big good terrorist attack, the perpetrator of which was immediately found and accidentally destroyed; the charred corpse is recognized as an illegal migrant."

Kaloy Akhilgov is an Ingush blogger and lawyer living in Moscow:

“Every time Tkachev says such things, we will ask: “Who was responsible for Kushchevka? Who from the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the region was fired and brought to justice?" No one.

And why should conflicts start sooner or later? If someone tries to justify the results of their inept policies in this way, they should leave. But to “prophesy” conflicts by comparing them with Yugoslavia means recognizing the collapse of the state.”

Akhilgov explains the governor’s statements regarding Caucasians “by the fact that a person has lost all fear and does not feel punishment, and this, in turn, follows from the support of the national leader, who, for one reason that is clear to me (and to everyone, I think) keeps Tkachev in office “The Olympics, which means cash flows.”

Ingush human rights activist Magomed Mutsolgov :

“The tragedy in Krymsk, which has to be restored bit by bit, all the disputes surrounding the causes of the flood and the death of so many city residents, all sorts of versions of what happened, seem to have prompted the low-authority regional government in Kuban to provoke the creation of a new lightning rod in the person of Caucasians as new enemies of Kuban. Naturally, Popular anti-Caucasian sentiments have long been saddled by politicians who are striving for power or trying to stay in it - in my understanding, they have now decided to use this card in Kuban. And the fact that the target audience for the Krasnodar governor’s “bold” statements was the police is not. does it tell us about attempts to contain the wave of popular indignation and grumbling within a framework that allows one to continue to sit on the regional “throne” through an officer’s uniform?”

Blogger from Dagestan Isma Magomedov :

“I don’t understand. Who was killed in Kushchevka? The Tsapka gang were Caucasians? And who allowed the flood of Krymsk without notifying the population, warning the entire bureaucracy in advance - Caucasians?

I just can't understand this man's logic. And the logic of such a policy is more incomprehensible to me, especially after Russian President Vladimir Putin from television screens hugs the three “golden boys” - Caucasians, who are saving Russia’s face in front of the whole world these days, like his own sons.

“I understand everything, but these words of Tkachev can be regarded in the only correct way - as the governor’s pre-retirement agony.”

In conclusion, the blogger recalls a story about the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali:

“Once upon a time, after an enchanting victory at the Olympics, the best boxer of all time, Mohammed Ali, went into a cafe in his homeland, and he was not served food because he was black. And then, with great resentment in his heart, he threw this medal into the river .

What should Arsen Galstyan do, who broke his arms and legs all his life, shedding sweat and blood, and achieved, just like Mohammed Ali, this great victory that brought fame to his homeland? Throw the medal into the Kuban River?

Columnist Anton Orech states in his blog that after what “Governor Tkachev said, in any normal country he would no longer be a governor.”

The publicist recalls that the very first medal at the London Olympics for the Russian team was won by a resident of the Krasnodar Territory: “But bad luck. His name is Arsen Galstyan. And what will Tkachev do with Galstyan now? Tkachev proposes to maintain a certain proportion between Russians and Caucasians. Well, maybe we should send Galstyan with his medal and his entire large Caucasian family to hell?”

Member of the Public Chamber, United Russia member Alexander Sokolov believes :

“Tkachev actually called for the collapse of the country. He recognized the regions of the North Caucasus as foreign enemy territories and called for fencing off them with the help of illegal armed groups. The purpose of these formations is not to maintain law and order, but to prevent the resettlement of citizens from one region to another. This is an egregious case. In fact, this is a call to incite ethnic hatred (Article 282 of the Criminal Code).

In this regard, we will contact the Prosecutor General’s Office with a proposal to check the legality of this decision. I will also raise this issue at the first autumn meeting of the Presidential Council on Interethnic Relations. “Soon the Public Chamber will adopt an official statement on this matter.”

Boris Vishnevsky, a member of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg from the Yabloko faction,also believes that it is high time for Tkachev to resign - not just to resign, but to places not so distant:

“Where is the prosecutor’s office, which must immediately react after such statements? Where is citizen Putin, who swore to be the “guarantor of the Constitution”? Where is his decree on Tkachev’s resignation? And for those who like to “preserve the ratio of the Russian population and representatives of other nations” and other Russian neo-fascists, my advice is to start with the Russian Olympic team. Where all three (at the moment) gold medals in London 2012 were won by the “foreigners” they hated.

Margarita Simonyan is perplexed on Twitter :

“I’ve known Tkachev since I was 18. I’ve discussed national issues with him a hundred times. His deputies are Caucasians: Akhedzhak (RIP), Khatuov. So I want to understand what he meant.”