Karachay-Cherkessia in elections to the State Duma

The North Caucasus continues preparation to the State Suma elections, which are to be held on December 4. Objectives are clear, and real political contest begins. Unlike Moscow (Right Cause’s list of candidates; prevention of Yabloko from gathering signatures) the North Caucasus Federal District is characterized by other problems. The North Caucasus expects troubles from radicals. The plenipotentiary envoy of the president in the NCFD, Alexander Khloponin, warns about efforts of incitement of ethnic hatred ahead the elections.

We hope that Khloponin’s concern will stay unreasonable, but, unfortunately, experience of the Duma elections suggests otherwise. In 2007 ahead the elections the law enforcement bodies were worried about possible provocations. That time the prosecution of the South Federal District reported that militants were given $1.5 million for destabilizations of the situation in the region. Today the problem is different. The North Caucasus is threatened by inner danger rather than foreign. For example, in the republics, where Agygs live, the Chechen problem is tried to be raised again in the context of new geopolitical reality. Recently activists of Cherkessian organizations addressed President Medvedev and heads of Kabardino-Balkaria, Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia with a request to consider repatriation of the Cherkessians from Syria to the North Caucasus.

Karachay-Cherkessia has always had intriguing relations with the parliament of Russia. Because of fight for mandates internal political conflicts often appeared in the republic. In 1999-2000 Karachay-Cherkessia was front-paged in all central newspapers, as in the State Duma it was presented by Boris Berezovsky. By that time he had already been the head of the Security Council and of the Executive Council of the CIS. After he became a member of the parliament (when the head of the republic was Vladimir Semenov), Berezovsky tried to secure the backing of Karachay-Cherkessia. In the State Duma he reported that “catastrophic situation established in the republic. It was based on communist and Muslim factors. For 95% of the population of Karachay-Cherkessia reforms were useless and led to economic impoverishment and national disintegration. The former authorities, which applied the principle “the worse is the better” almost led the region for another North Caucasus fire.”

Experts hoped that Berezovsky success in the Duma elections in 1999 will be an interesting political experiment in the North Caucasus region. “If Berezovsky deals with economy of Karachay-Cherkessia seriously, other constituents of the region will catch up, as everything is interdependent in the North Caucasus,” Alexander Granberg, the member of the Academy of Sciences of Russia, hoped.

However, this “if” was crucial. Berezovsky had no intention to deal with economy of Karachay-Cherkessia seriously. In summer 2000 Berezovsky decided to leave the Duma on his own free will. At that moment the deputy of LDPR, Alexei Mitrofanov, said that “Berezovsky had been a delicate compromise between the ethnic groups living in the republic, and his left could aggravate the situation.” Berezovsky apologized to his voters for falling short of their hopes. Soon he moved to Great Britain, and Karachay-Cherkessia was left without investment.

This year the special role can be played by the former head of the republic, Boris Ebzeyev, who became the member of the Central Election Commission after his unexpected resignation. Ebzeyev believes that “even though there is common civil model based on the Constitution, the North Caucasus cannot make a departure of the ethnic aspect. There are local peculiarities, which should be considered.” At the moment Ebzeyev defends positions of Moscow in the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in the issue of number of foreign observers in the elections. In 2007-2008 ODIHER ignored either parliamentary or presidential campaigns. The Central Election Committee accused ODIHER of double standards and non-transparency of elections’ monitoring. “People, who are openly hostile to the country, couldn’t be observers in it. Villains and rascals get in office because honest and decent people do not vote rather than lack of foreign observers,” Ebzeyev told Vzglyad.

Katerina Tesemnikova. Exclusively to VK.