Translated material
A new person to solve old problems
Ramazan Abdulatipov is a rather convenient candidate for the Kremlin as the head of Dagestan. He has the experience of federal politics - he was the chairman of the Council of Nationalities, the Minister, the Ambassador to Tajikistan, and the rector of the University of Culture. He is managing, but at the same time ambitious, initiative, that is, he will be ready to fulfill the tasks that will set him. He himself wants to be president, and he wants to.
Directly in Dagestan, the position of Abdulatipov is more difficult. On the one hand, the Avars are pleased that such a person will perform important functions, albeit temporarily - and there, you look, and will remain. But, on the other hand, there is an opinion that he was too badly broke away from the local situation, that the Kremlin manipulates them. In the business and political Dagestan diaspora in Moscow, it is treated differently.
How, in general, the whole situation with the appointment of Abdulatipov will be perceived in Dagestan, it is difficult to say now. In any case, the inhabitants of the republic are annoyed by the fact that everything happens besides them: who they wanted, they sent him. There is civil society in Dagestan, people freely express their thoughts, the Islamic opposition is strong in the republic.
Abdulatipov said that he was ready for direct elections. In relation to Dagestan, direct elections have both pros and cons. For Dagestan society, direct elections are fraught with unpredictable consequences, since power in the republic is traditionally distributed by ethnic quotas. On the other hand, Dagestan is part of Russia, people here claim to have a normal society built on democracy, with normal political principles. Therefore, there is no easy solution to this problem. Much depends on the situation in the republic itself and on the political tact of the Kremlin. The Kremlin has a political tact and a high intellectual level to solve the problems of the Caucasus, I deeply doubt.
The question that everyone is asking now: what problems will Abdulatipov will have to face? It can be answered as follows: all the problems that were in the republic fifteen years ago remained. This is the ongoing civil war, and the Islamic opposition and unemployment are problems at every step, and no one knows how to display them.
During the reign of Magomedsalam Magomedov, the situation has not changed much. He hoped to restore order, to achieve more stability. He made some attempts, and, indeed, the number of terrorist attacks in 2012 compared to 2011 decreased slightly. However, the main problems have been preserved. Therefore, there is no much sense to contrast each other with the former heads of Dagestan - none of them are no better and no worse. Magomedov annoyed the Kremlin in that he was relatively independent and his opinion was different from the Kremlin. In particular, he played for direct democratic elections, and in the Kremlin, as you know, they are not particularly loved. There was no complete understanding between the federal government and Magomedov. Abdulatipov has excellent ties in Moscow, perhaps he can better agree than his predecessors, but he is unlikely to offer qualitatively new ways to solve the problems of Dagestan.