President of Dagestan: you can’t leave him behind

The possible removal of the head of Dagestan, Magomedsalam Magomedov, alarmed the republic. It is almost impossible to get official comments on this matter. A PublicPost correspondent found out where the rumors about the resignation of the Dagestan president came from.

Conversations about Magomedov's possible resignation were provoked by State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein, who wrote in his microblog on January 17 that one of the heads of the North Caucasus republics could soon lose his post. On the same day, Dagestani bloggersreplicated Khinshtein’s message and added that on January 14, Magomedov met with Vyacheslav Volodin, the first deputy head of the presidential administration. The latter allegedly told Magomedov that Putin asked him to write a letter of resignation. According to rumors, Magomedov was to be replaced by United Russia deputy Ramazan Abdulatipov.

On January 21, the head of Dagestan himself called these conversations rumors . But in the evening of the next day, according to a PublicPost source in the Dagestani government, Magomedov flew to Moscow to meet with the president. There were no official reports about this, and the information vacuum again began to be filled by bloggers who launched the hashtag #WeHaveTheRightToKnow on Twitter about this. On the morning of January 23, federal media ( Kommersant , Forbes , RBC , etc.) reported that the president of Dagestan had resigned.

It was no coincidence that conversations about Magomedov’s removal from the post of head of the republic appeared, a source in the Dagestan government told PublicPost: “There were no obvious reasons for the resignation of the head of Dagestan. Many experts called the main version the conflict between Magomedov and the security forces, meaning that he does not allow the military to unfold in the republic But this, in my opinion, is complete nonsense. If there were reasons for leaving his position, it was only a conflict of interests. There is information that Magomedov did not fulfill the promises he made to the oligarch senator Suleiman Kerimov, although he invested a lot of money in the republic. Let's remember about the investments in Anji. Thanks to this, almost the whole planet was talking about the republic. Both the Makhachkala airport and the seaport were to be given to Kerimov. But Magomedov did not fulfill his promises, and Kerimov resorted to raider mechanisms to get the largest airport. in Dagestan, Express Bank is also associated with the name of the oligarch. Most recently, the post of Deputy Prime Minister of Dagestan was taken by Oleg Lipatov, a man who is called Kerimov’s chief accountant. Seeing that the senator was determined, the head of Dagestan turned to the billionaire brothers from Dagestan Ziyaudin and Magomed Magomedov for help. Having learned about this, Kerimov resorted to his connections in the Kremlin to remove the head of Dagestan."

The Dagestan president was ruined by idleness, a deputy of the region’s People’s Assembly told PublicPost on condition of anonymity: “Magomedsalam Magomedov, together with his closest associates, spent the New Year holidays in the UAE. Expensive yachts, restaurants - all this was part of the vacation. Moscow was outraged that the president flew to the Emirates without notification Putin's administration was even more outraged that Magomedov was on vacation while high-profile crimes were taking place in the republic. For example, the murder of a judge of the local Supreme Court. According to my information, which my other colleagues have, Magomedov was summoned to Moscow because of this and was told there. to write a letter of resignation."

Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov denied the information that the president would receive the Dagestan head. According to Peskov, such a meeting is not planned in Putin’s schedule. But the meeting still took place, a Dagestan deputy assured PublicPost: “Since yesterday, in the government of Dagestan, all the heads of districts and cities, parliamentarians and ministers have been waiting for the results of this meeting. On the square in Makhachkala, where the government building is located, from morning until lunch, supporters simply stood President - employees of various departments. Closer to eleven in the evening, Magomedov left Putin. He remained in his position, but, as they say, Putin demanded from him radical changes in the republic.”

Magomedov is in Moscow on a working visit, the head of the analytical department of the President of Dagestan, Zubairu Zubairuev, told PublicPost: “I will not comment on rumors. The government of the republic is working as usual, and the head of Dagestan flew to Moscow on work issues - he has many meetings planned that have accumulated recently. Who he is meeting with and on what issues - I don’t have that information.” Ramazan Abdulatipov, who was supposedly supposed to replace Magomedov, said on Business FM that he had not yet received any offers.

There is no official confirmation or refutation of the rumors yet, but it can be assumed that the main struggle for the seat of the Dagestan leader is ahead. This is indicated, in particular, by a spontaneous meeting of Avars (the largest ethnic group in the region) on January 22 in Khasavyurt. More than three thousand people gathered at the sports complex, and the event was headed by the mayor of Khasavyurt, Saygidpasha Umakhanov, who is considered an opponent of Magomedov. At the meeting, Umakhanov said that only an Avar should be the president of Dagestan, saying that there are more Avars than anyone else, and the situation in the republic depends on them.

In Dagestan, since the times of the USSR, national quotas have been sacredly observed: if the president is Avar, then the prime minister is Dargin, and the speaker is Kumyk. Positions in the top three positions sometimes change, but representatives of other Dagestan peoples (14 titular peoples and about 60 nationalities live in Dagestan - editor's note) are barred from getting into these positions - their interests are taken into account in other posts. The result of the Khasavyurt meeting was that it was decided to hold a congress of the Avar people in March of this year.

There are a lot of people vying for the presidency of Dagestan, Magomed Bisavaliev, editor-in-chief of the Avar newspaper Millat, told PublicPost: “The main struggle for the presidency is possible between the Dagestani oligarchs - Kerimov and the Magomedov brothers. Dagestan officials vying for the presidency will huddle with billionaires. One group of contenders includes the mayor of Makhachkala Said Amirov, the mayor of Khasavyurt Saygidpasha Umakhanova, the chief treasurer of Dagestan Sagidgusein Magomedov - this is a group of the Magomedov brothers. The Kerimov group includes State Duma deputy Ramazan Abdulatipov, the mayor of Derbent Imam Yaraliev. The head of the Pension Fund for Dagestan is equidistant from these two groups. Sagid Murtuzaliev. As for Magomedsalam Magomedov, it is unlikely that he will become the head of the republic for the second time.”

Meanwhile, the leaders of the North Caucasus republics turned to the Russian presidential administration with a proposal not to hold elections in their regions. In their opinion, this will reduce pre-election tension in the republics.