Interview by Oleg Kusov. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
The leader of Ingushetia has become the first head of the North Caucasus Region to visit Vestnik Kavkaza. Yevkurov has reaffirmed his reputation of the most communicative politicians in such a complicated region as the Caucasus. Perhaps Yevkurov’s openness is the basis of many positive moments in Ingushetia. All inhabitants know his cellphone number that they can use to complain about functionaries or ask for advice. Farmers, according to the republican program, will have guaranteed access to the Ingush authorities to solve their problems. The Caucasus values business and accessible authorities, not corrupt and closed ones. Hence the respect towards the leader of Ingushetia in the North Caucasus, despite the complicated interethnic differences Ossetians and Ingushetians got from radicals who caused tensions between the two peoples. The Ingush leader’s plans to normalize the internal situation in Ingushetia and around it have good chances for success, because it seems that Yevkurov managed to form a team of like-minded people. The facts indicate that he knows how to solve various complicated problems.
- Ingushetia still has quite a high level of unemployment. According to official data, 31% are unemployed. Are you succeeding in reducing the figure?
- At the end of the previous year we forecast a reduction of unemployment to 34% by the end of the year, I set it all out in a report for Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. We have now achieved a level of 31%, in other words we exceeded the plan. Ingushetia is a region that has not had any large industrial enterprises, a region where 90% of facilities were social (hospitals, schools, nurseries). And they were not plentiful. It was so historically. In Soviet times, many, including me, your obedient servant, were going for “shabashka” [temporary work] beyond our region, to Siberia, to the Far East, to other places. In other words, we worked the whole summer, visited different bases, made money. There was unemployment then, it was around 30-40%. So we could not get out of that condition instantly. Coming up with different programs and realizing them is the government’s goal today. Including attraction of investments and realization of federal purpose programs for socio-economic development of the Republic of Ingushetia, Russia’s South, participation in other social programs. And, of course, support for small and medium-scale business. We get quite serious accompaniment, protection and aid on the issue from the Federal District. Alexander Gennadyevich Khloponin was paying quite serious attention to that in his time.
The current authorities and Sergey Vladimirovich Melikov focus primarily on employment of the population. We have been relieved by the formation of the Ministry for North Caucasus Affairs. The first and the main goal the minister named – Lev Kuznetsov has recently visited us – is the demand that the authorities of the country reduce unemployment as much as possible using projects that will boost production, jobs, budget income. Nonetheless, today we have colossal opportunities, using the sanctions imposed on us, to create products for import displacement. All the institutions of our republic are seriously working on it. Here is a plan to reduce unemployment to 29% by the end of the year. But I would not talk about eradication of unemployment in a year or two-three years. I know what resources we have for development of industry, support of small and medium-scale business and opportunities to attract small and large private investments. So we needed to act to reduce unemployment, but it cannot be ended immediately.
- Ingushetia has the highest birth rate among Russian regions. It appears that about a third of your population are children. Are there special programs for their education? Do all children go to school? You know, there are problems arising with, let’s say, the competition to enter madrasahs in the North Caucasus. You do not have such a problem, do you?
- I think that the competition for maadrasahs is a made-up thing. Today there are problems that do not need that much attention, they just need to be controlled without becoming a public matter. The same problem applies to hijabs. Why do we need to talk about it? It is simply headwear. We do not scold girls who go to school in red, blue, yellow open-toe shoes. If there were no attention to the headwear, no one would have been wearing any demonstratively. The same concerns the madrasahs. We have madrasahs in mosques, where classes are held without discontinuing work, as we say. They pass the school program at schools, then they enter madrasahs. There are quite serious requirements towards clerics teaching children. I demand that kids treat it like an ordinary class. If someone studies well, he can study in a “class” the way it was done in Soviet times.
- Yes, after school.
- And there was a motivation. Today, such work is not only done in sports classes, it is also done in the madrasahs, where children are taught, a young man is explained that the Quran is the Arab language that you cannot master without knowledge of simple grammar or verbs that are studied in any language. If you were a D-student there, you will be a D-student here. You will just be learning the Quran by heart, but you will not know the meaning. In this regard, we carry out a serious examination with a focus on children knowing that their main education is at secular schools, when they study at a madrasahs. We test them, also with the help of law enforcers, the Federal Security Service. I would not say that we have had any remarks in that case in two years. There are no problems in this regard. Prosecutors have found four cases when children were not attending school, which caused quite serious interference…
- But were they attending a madrasah?
- They were attending a madrasah and not attending school. There was quite serious interference of muftis, first of all. A conversation was had with the parents, and the parents were steadfast that their children should not attend school. The ombudsman for children and other institutions acted, persuaded them and rectified the situation.
Ingush leader visits Vestnik KavkazaInterview by Oleg Kusov. Exclusively for Vestnik KavkazaThe leader of Ingushetia has become the first head of the North Caucasus Region to visit Vestnik Kavkaza. Yevkurov has reaffirmed his reputation of the most communicative politicians in such a complicated region as the Caucasus. Perhaps Yevkurov’s openness is the basis of many positive moments in Ingushetia. All inhabitants know his cellphone number that they can use to complain about functionaries or ask for advice. Farmers, according to the republican program, will have guaranteed access to the Ingush authorities to solve their problems. The Caucasus values business and accessible authorities, not corrupt and closed ones. Hence the respect towards the leader of Ingushetia in the North Caucasus, despite the complicated interethnic differences Ossetians and Ingushetians got from radicals who caused tensions between the two peoples. The Ingush leader’s plans to normalize the internal situation in Ingushetia and around it have good chances for success, because it seems that Yevkurov managed to form a team of like-minded people. The facts indicate that he knows how to solve various complicated problems.- Ingushetia still has quite a high level of unemployment. According to official data, 31% are unemployed. Are you succeeding in reducing the figure?- At the end of the previous year we forecast a reduction of unemployment to 34% by the end of the year, I set it all out in a report for Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. We have now achieved a level of 31%, in other words we exceeded the plan. Ingushetia is a region that has not had any large industrial enterprises, a region where 90% of facilities were social (hospitals, schools, nurseries). And they were not plentiful. It was so historically. In Soviet times, many, including me, your obedient servant, were going for “shabashka” [temporary work] beyond our region, to Siberia, to the Far East, to other places. In other words, we worked the whole summer, visited different bases, made money. There was unemployment then, it was around 30-40%. So we could not get out of that condition instantly. Coming up with different programs and realizing them is the government’s goal today. Including attraction of investments and realization of federal purpose programs for socio-economic development of the Republic of Ingushetia, Russia’s South, participation in other social programs. And, of course, support for small and medium-scale business. We get quite serious accompaniment, protection and aid on the issue from the Federal District. Alexander Gennadyevich Khloponin was paying quite serious attention to that in his time.The current authorities and Sergey Vladimirovich Melikov focus primarily on employment of the population. We have been relieved by the formation of the Ministry for North Caucasus Affairs. The first and the main goal the minister named – Lev Kuznetsov has recently visited us – is the demand that the authorities of the country reduce unemployment as much as possible using projects that will boost production, jobs, budget income. Nonetheless, today we have colossal opportunities, using the sanctions imposed on us, to create products for import displacement. All the institutions of our republic are seriously working on it. Here is a plan to reduce unemployment to 29% by the end of the year. But I would not talk about eradication of unemployment in a year or two-three years. I know what resources we have for development of industry, support of small and medium-scale business and opportunities to attract small and large private investments. So we needed to act to reduce unemployment, but it cannot be ended immediately.- Ingushetia has the highest birth rate among Russian regions. It appears that about a third of your population are children. Are there special programs for their education? Do all children go to school? You know, there are problems arising with, let’s say, the competition to enter madrasahs in the North Caucasus. You do not have such a problem, do you?- I think that the competition for maadrasahs is a made-up thing. Today there are problems that do not need that much attention, they just need to be controlled without becoming a public matter. The same problem applies to hijabs. Why do we need to talk about it? It is simply headwear. We do not scold girls who go to school in red, blue, yellow open-toe shoes. If there were no attention to the headwear, no one would have been wearing any demonstratively. The same concerns the madrasahs. We have madrasahs in mosques, where classes are held without discontinuing work, as we say. They pass the school program at schools, then they enter madrasahs. There are quite serious requirements towards clerics teaching children. I demand that kids treat it like an ordinary class. If someone studies well, he can study in a “class” the way it was done in Soviet times.- Yes, after school.- And there was a motivation. Today, such work is not only done in sports classes, it is also done in the madrasahs, where children are taught, a young man is explained that the Quran is the Arab language that you cannot master without knowledge of simple grammar or verbs that are studied in any language. If you were a D-student there, you will be a D-student here. You will just be learning the Quran by heart, but you will not know the meaning. In this regard, we carry out a serious examination with a focus on children knowing that their main education is at secular schools, when they study at a madrasahs. We test them, also with the help of law enforcers, the Federal Security Service. I would not say that we have had any remarks in that case in two years. There are no problems in this regard. Prosecutors have found four cases when children were not attending school, which caused quite serious interference…- But were they attending a madrasah?- They were attending a madrasah and not attending school. There was quite serious interference of muftis, first of all. A conversation was had with the parents, and the parents were steadfast that their children should not attend school. The ombudsman for children and other institutions acted, persuaded them and rectified the situat
