By Vestnik Kavkaza
On September 8 the Republic of Ingushetia holds presidential elections. After visiting Moscow, the acting head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, held a large-scale press conference. During the event Yevkurov spoke about the upcoming elections, his political opponents, his relationship with the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and the further development of the republic. The acting head of Ingushetia told reporters that it is necessary to fight stereotypes of "people of Caucasian nationality" and "show more Caucasian academicians, professors, athletes, ordinary people, some of whom are heroes." Yevkurov recalled a time when a resident of Ingushetia saved a girl in a fire at the "Lame Horse" in Perm, even though he suffered severe burns.
Yevkurov reminded that the Ingush parliament adopted the law on the presidential elections going through the parliament. Here, of course, the chances increase: “Russian President has already suggested three candidates, including myself. I hope for success and I hope that Parliament will decide in my favor. I do not hide it.” Yevkurov noted that other candidates have chances as well: “They are worthy people. One of them is the deputy chairman of the parliament, the second one is the chairman of the regional branch of the "Fair Russia" party. They are well-known people.”
Speaking about his position as the leader, Yevkurov emphasized: “I am a Citizen of the Russian Federation with a capital letter, I am a patriot of my homeland and have always been proud of it. For me, there is absolutely no difference between Ingushetia and Russia, it is a great country. I cannot imagine Ingushetia without the Russian Federation. Our ancestors have bequeathed to us, the modern Ingush people, and if we are citizens of this country, we have to live with it, remember it and preserve it.”
Commenting on the socio-economic situation in the republic, Yevkurov noted: “We began to engage with settlement of economic problems at the end of 2010. 2009-2010 passed in the fight against terrorism and banditry, at least to stabilize the situation, but, nevertheless, I must say that we have achieved a great deal in that time. Today, to radically change direction, to recognize that everything we have done for the last four years was not right, to turn 180 degrees, no, of course not. There will be a new chairman of the government. And, of course, the team should be new, but task number one is to continue the same course, but at the same time strengthen some areas, taking into account past errors. Only he who does not work doesn’t make mistakes.”
“But there will not be any radicalism,” Yevkurov promised. “We have a program that we are implementing - the federal target program of the socio-economic development of the Republic of Ingushetia, and the program "South of Russia" is quite serious, the federal program, which is powerfully presented. We have plans for tourist destinations, for agriculture, for the construction sector, for small and medium-sized enterprises, for investments. We have a federal highway, which we are going to open officially on Saturday, the first 10 km, and by the end of 2014, now, unfortunately it’s been delayed by a year, by the end of 2015 a fully-finished federal road A1 category should be there. There are plans for inter-settlement roads. There are plans for the Dzheyrakhsk area, socio-economic development of municipalities. Of course, we are not going to change these plans, but we will adjust them. There will be no radical change of direction, because I believe that what we are doing today, I think it's right. More radically, we are going to introduced a social component, and in the economic component to develop industrial production, various directions to create more jobs, reduce dependence on subsidies and create better conditions for the population.”
Yevkurov thinks one of the acutest problems of the Russian society should be settled in the following way: “It is necessary to fight stereotypes of "people of Caucasian nationality. I understand perfectly well that today you are more than happy to show a shooting at a wedding rather than a beautiful Caucasian wedding. This is normal. Noise is always louder. This is normal, I understand it well. There are those who see only bad things, and there are those who pick up all these bad things and invent further on as much as their fancy allows. At a meeting, I announced to bloggers, let's not fight with the label that is put on us, "people of Caucasian nationality". Let's, on the contrary, twist it in a positive way, and quite a big wave followed. "People of Caucasian nationality" are also academics, professors, ordinary people, the Dagestani who saved a child, not the Dagestani who hit a police officer. In a positive way ... That Ingush, who in the "Lame Horse", with 60% burns, saved people, not that Ingush who danced in Stavropol.
Now we in the Republic want, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic was given a task to create a movie about a classic wedding. Get a real wedding, but do it in a classic, traditional version of how it all happened. I have met our athletes at the World Junior Wrestling Championships, one won first place, another won third place, and they held the flags of Russia and the Russian national anthem played, not the Ingush one. In this regard, they are Russians, they are citizens of the Russian Federation. I hope that we will continue to notice more good things, although we have to notice bad things as well, so that we do not commit such evil deeds. We must try to get away from those bad things.”
