Author: VK
According to Deputy Prime Minister and presidential envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District Alexander Khloponin, corruption in the regions of the North Caucasus Federal District is a little different from corruption in Moscow and other regions of the country. "Do not hope that this evil can be overcome only by law enforcement agencies. Here joint efforts of government and society are necessary", Khloponin said at the conference of the Public Council of the North Caucasus Federal District held in Pyatigorsk in mid-March.
He noted that the president and the government of Russia are rather hard to fight corruption. In particular, Khloponin mentioned passing legislation obliging officials to declare their income and expenses, as well as property. There are no more "untouchable" in the country, he said citing high-profile criminal cases against high-ranking officials of "Roscosmos", "Rosoboronservice", "Federal Fisheries Agency," "Rosagroleasing", other ministries, agencies, regional and local authorities. No fewer cases with corruption component were investigated in the North Caucasus Federal District, in particular, in the Stavropol region, Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan.
Commenting on the fight against corruption for VK, Kirill Kabanov, head of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights, said that both federal officials and the so-called elite in the North Caucasus are guilty of the existing situation. He said that the program, which has been adopted for the development of the North Caucasus, is a financial stabilization mechanism, but “we still need to understand that this mechanism must be controlled. Moreover, we should control and monitor it all the time - from the moment of the formation of the budget proposal, again, the validity and feasibility of any action, because, in turn, allocating more money could be an additional factor of discord, and the use of extremist and terrorist themes could be a reason for a new wave for corruption amongst the clans”.
According to Kabanov, the main condition for allocating funds should be the fact that it is only for the development, though “someone can earn from this, but not to steal, but it is, of course, very difficult. To date, in this situation, which is based on stealing, there are federal officials, especially the so-called elite in the North Caucasus. There is the document that we prepared two years ago for President Medvedev on the changes in the motivation of terrorism and extremism in the North Caucasus, including the corruption there, after which Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin stated this publicly. So saying that the situation is somewhere better and somewhere worse ... Somewhere it stands, but we can not say that it is better, it is supported by federal money - this is Chechnya; the situation is worse somewhere, there the issues with the clans are not resolved, and saying that everything is all right is very difficult”.
Kabanov thinks that from now to 2014, before the Olympics, the government will still try to financially appease the North Caucasus in order to prevent the conflicts from reaching a global or dangerous level.”Nevertheless, it may turn out differently, depending on the scenario development related to many things, including Sochi. If we say that the Olympic Games in Sochi are linked to the North Caucasus, this is not only geographically, geopolitically, this includes and is associated with the economy.
There are experts who say that some negative developments in the North Caucasus could be beneficial for those in power in order to pass on responsibility for any unpredictable events in Sochi. I understand that the leadership of the country in any case is not trying to develop such a scenario, but still there are pressure groups that have huge financial resources and can play all sorts of cards”, Kabanov said.
