Dmitry Litvinovich: What is going on in the republic of Ingushetia?

Ruslan Aushev, the President of the republic of Ingushetia, confirmed in an interview to Interfax news agency, he was going to resign from his position by the New Year. Aushev thinks, the presidential elections in the republic are supposed to take place on March 1, 2002, which will help to make them go separately from the parliamentary elections. The chairman of the republic’s government will be the acting president of Ingushetia during the period January 1 – March 1, 2002.

Ingushetia’s Supreme Court considered the delay of the elections until March of the next year as illegal, for the court found, the president had to remain on his position till February of the year 2003. But Aushev is not confused about it, as it seems. The president of Ingushetia has a more stable legal ground. Making this resignation of his own, Aushev uses the effect of the Russian Constitution, pursuant to which the elections can be appointed not later, than in four months.

What is this game Aushev is playing? Everybody knows, he is the only one, capable of coping with the republic that has so many problems. But if we remember the elections in the republic of Yakutia, then Yakutia’s President Mikhail Nikolayev also had a very high rating, but it did not prevent the Kremlin from taking him out of the list of registered candidacies. Maybe Aushev believes that the events, which took place in Yakutia, could repeat in Ingushetia too? Well, everything is possible, but Yakutia is not in the Northern Caucasus. The Kremlin is not likely to take on the liability for the huge burden of problems in Ingushetia. Whether Aushev is good or bad – it does not actually matter – he is keeping the situation in the republic under his control, and this is exactly the thing Moscow needs.

In the meantime the situation in Ingushetia is getting more and more tense. The national assembly of the republic – the one that had set the date for the elections - is intended to resign too. As Kommersant newspaper wrote, the deputies decided to do that in order not to accept Aushev’s resignation. The president will remain on his position that way before the early elections to the parliament, which are to take place in spring.

Alexander Veshnyakov, the chairman of the Russian Central Electoral Committee said that the change of the government in the republic must take place “without the street meetings and demonstrations.” Veshnyakov also added, Aushev could listen to what the people had to say on the subject. Veshnyakov reminded, Aushev was elected president in 1998, so the time of his presidency is going to be over in March of 2003 only. But if Aushev says he can not keep on working, then he should resign, having written the adequate statement.

The head of the Central Electoral Committee also said that in case if Aushev really leaves ahead of the scheduled time, then he will not be able to be re-elected at the early presidential elections that will have to take place in March of the year 2002.

Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov