Misbehavior and politics

Kirill Popov. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

Last Saturday the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, warned the republic's bureaucrats that they will be dismissed if their sons misbehave in Russian cities and towns. Yevkurov initiated the idea of seizing and selling the expensive cars of such troublemakers, while the money gained should be allocated to the necessities of the regions, for example, construction of kindergartens. “When our guys are driving cars which cost as much as 15 houses, people in other Russian regions see this and become fairly furious about this. We invest so many resources in the Caucasus, and they have such expensive cars! People think the resources are spent on cars, rather than the development of the republic. I suggest the idea of seizing the cars and putting them up for auction,” Ingushetia’s head said.

This is not the first time the head of a North Caucasus republic has made official statements connected with various incidents in other regions of Russia, especially in Moscow. For example, the head of Dagestan, Magomedsalam Magomedov, made a statement about the incident connected with shooting at a wedding, Magomedov reminded that “it is a tradition of Dagestan’s people to treat weapons carefully, which doesn’t correlate with shooting on joyful days.” He considers this deed was a street crime. At the same time, Magomedov didn’t promise to punish anybody.

This summer the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, made a statement after a fight in Moscow near the Europeiski trade center. He called the behavior of the Chechen youth outrageous and a result of idleness. Kadyrov said that troublemakers shouldn’t expect support from the administration of the republic if they are arrested in other regions of Russia. Thus, his position correlates with Yevkurov’s.

The situation is clear. The North Caucasian politicians’ reaction seems to be logical. At the same time, it is strange that heads of the republics apologize and make public statements about any case of misbehavior committed by their compatriots. Should officials be responsible for the moral character of every citizen? Of course, they should have their view on the situation, but the issue lies in the private sphere rather than at state level.

As far as I remember, the president of Russia has never apologized for deeds committed by Russian tourists abroad. However, the rudeness, impoliteness and misbehavior of our citizens on tourist excursions has become proverbial.

It appears the point is not in the deeds, but in the nationality of the people who commit them. Society greedily waits for any mistake made by national minorities in order to criticize them. At the same time, we cannot say that natives of the North Caucasus are innocent victims of information baiting. Often their behavior does have a “national” mark. Russians, Ukrainians or Mordvans would act differently in the same situations.

Russian society is like a group of teenagers who are trying to find out who is the coolest. It makes the authorities at the federal and republican levels deal with issues which are not included in their duties. The authorities simply have no effective instruments for settling them. Statements by Kadyrov, Magomedov, and Yevkurov will hardly calm down dissatisfaction of the “Greater Russian” social view or make Caucasian youth behave appropriately.