For 20 years the North Caucasus has been a permanent source of bad news. A whole generation of journalists-Caucasiologists was raised, including those who carried out great information and analysis work, which contributes to the education of our society in the sphere of historic-cultural problems of the region. The North Caucasus of the 1990s, the 2000s and the 2010s differ from each other, as many things have changed positively. Unfortunately, positive facts are not as interesting for broadcasters as negative ones.
The region is complex. In different regions problems are different, but common problems exist as well. Some of them are easyily detected, others are deeply hidden.
Corruption, clannishness, unemployment, low income of the population… There is nothing exclusively Caucasian in these. Even clannishness is a phenomenon of all-Russian reality.
The situation of frozen uncertainty in the North Caucasus is comfortable for the politicians who don’t want to develop and implement modernization technologies in the region. They have great justification: the North Caucasus constituents are indispensible parts of Russia, and they shouldn’t prosper while the country is far from prosperity.
However, they don’t consider that the North Caucasus has always been a special region. It experiences illnesses common to whole Russia differently: sometimes harder, sometimes easier.
Moscow understood that the management of the region should be changed. Two years ago the North Caucasus Federal District headed by Alexander Khloponin was established. People waited for miracles from the young plenipotentiary envoy, as the population always wants quick positive results from new authorities. They are not interested in how Khloponin will settle the wide-ranging problems of the region.
In January 2010 the Kremlin had to find respectable top officials, who were prepared to ruin their political careers and become the North Caucasus fire-fighter. Many officials considered the establishment of the NCFD not as an intention to settle regional problems seriously, but as the institutionalization of the position responsible for all the conflicts in the North Caucasus.
I think when Khloponin heard about his appointment, his first thoughts were “Why me?” and “What have I done wrong?” Meanwhile, it appeared the appointment wasn’t banishment to a penal colony, it was the enormous necessity of an outstanding person, who can respond to difficult challenges.
After the appointment, the envoy wasn’t enthusiastic in reformation. He got to know the people, the district and their concerns. He visited many towns and villages. He mostly listened rather than spoke. It seemed he had the objective of passing a snap course of studying his district and its life.
The results are clear. The envoy knows ethnographic details which are unknown to even some Caucasus experts. By the way, journalists do not cover these important things. They are more interested in what Khloponin does wrong. At the same time, local people of the North Caucasus appreciate the envoy’s respect for their culture and traditions.
Then ideas and projects began to be born. They turned into concrete deeds. Khloponin doesn’t implement revolutionary radicalism as an approach. He understands that not all Gordian knots of the North Caucasus can be cut. They demand untypical decisions.
Under great pressure of public opinion and a crowd of advisors, Khloponin is taking a punch. He is not in a hurry to speed things up, even though they will surely be successful. He is open to any ideas and discussion of them. His personal website is read by thousands of people, who ask questions and propose ideas. Khloponin is silent in a conversation with a populist and active when constructive ideas are suggested. However, Khloponin will pass any approved project through tough expert analysis before it will be implemented.
This feature of Khloponin’s perfectly correlates with the mentality of mountain peoples. The population of the North Caucasus is traditionally conservative. Of course, they are not strictly against any changes, but their considerations sound like this: if there are no guarantees of changing life for the better, let it be how it has been. The North Caucasus people accept democracy and civil society, but not as slogans. They accept them as a path to justice. This is an important aspect.
On purpose or not, Khloponin acts as his ancient predecessors – the most successful Caucasian governors (M. Vorontsov, A. Baryatinsky), who understood mountain peoples don’t like radical reforms, but that reforms are necessary. That is they should be prepared in detail and provided carefully.
I think the envoy is being criticized for his strong side: dealing with the delicate environment, he prefers to look before he leaps. Khloponin understood the most important thing: there is no one decision for all regional problems. The way out is systematic staged scientific work in all directions. Even a common sum of good businesses will trigger quality changes.
And Khloponin chose this way. Analysts mentioned the equal distribution of what he accents in his program statements. Previously it was obvious that investment was the top priority, i.e. economic projects were considered to be a universal way for stabilization of the North Caucasus.
Today we can see Khloponin’s interest in issues of culture, education, young people, inter-ethnic relations, and so on. Touching upon these themes, he is more emotional.
This means there is hope. A hope that a stage of learning about the North Caucasus's problems is finished. And now real systematic practical daily work begins. A lot depends on the personal skills of the envoy. Thank God Khloponin has no problems with this.
During Khloponin’s leadership, organization-financing mechanisms for implementation of the development strategy were established. One of the most major of them is the Corporation of the North Caucasus development as a branch structure of the Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs. The other is Resorts of the North Caucasus as a branch structure of Special Economic Zones with the participation of the Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs and Sberbank of Russia. In 2011 the ”depressive” district showed stable growth of gross regional product, and it had the second index of industrial development among other federal districts.
Khloponin pays a lot of attention to development of civil society institutions and cooperation between them and institutes of traditional society. The Public Council of the District, the Anti-Corruption Council, the Elders Council, the Youth Policy Council and others were established.
However, we shouldn’t deceive ourselves. Rose-tinted glasses are not an acceptable tool for gathering a true picture of the North Caucasus's reality. So we should admit that the envoy and his team face an enormous amount of work. It is hard, risky and thankless. But somebody's got to do it.
Vladimir Degoyev, professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations
