During a visit to Dagestan on September 21, Moscow’s envoy to the North Caucasus, Aleksandr Khloponin, urged the republican leadership to use the opportunities that had been provided by the federal authorities to make advances in economic development. "The time when it was possible to go around with an extended hand is over,” Khloponin told the Dagestani government, adding "Dagestan has maximum competitive advantages for economic development. The amount of investment into your republic and government guarantees for attracting credit resources are unprecedented” (www.riadagestan.ru, September 21).

The economic situation in Dagestan, in Khloponin’s opinion, is manifestly dire. Of the estimated 1.7 million Dagestanis of working age, only 1.1 million are employed. Thousands of Dagestanis migrate temporarily from the mountainous ...

Municipal elections in Dagestan on October 10 were marred by violence and fraud. In the republic’s Levashi district, the head of the village of Khadzhalmakhi, Abdulmuslim Nurmagomedov, died during a massive fight in which several other people were injured and taken to the hospital. The fighting broke out after 4,500 ballots were stolen (RIA Novosti, October 10). The Levashi district is situated in the heart of Dagestan’s mountains and has a certain political importance given that the two ruling clans which have largely controlled the republic and its capital Makhachkala for a long time hail from this district. 

Dagestan remains probably one of the few Russian regions in which local elections still matter to people and evoke significant flare-ups of tension. Earlier, on October 3, an aide to one of the deputy candidates for a local ...