Paul Goble
Vienna, May 26 – Daghestan now has 50 “permanent representations” in Russian regions and CIS countries to help promote trade and to support the rights and interests of Daghestanis living there, the latest in a remarkable evolution of a Soviet-era institution that became the foundation for the embassies of most post-Soviet states in Moscow.
Earlier this month, officials from these 50 offices assembled in Makhachkala not only for their annual meeting with the republic’s nationalities ministry, which oversees their activities, but to celebrate the tenth anniversary of 14 of them, including those in Minsk, Bashkortostan, and Karachayevo-Cherkessia (www.vestikavkaza.ru/articles/obshestvo/diaspora/1766.html).
Zikrula Ilyasov, the first deputy minister for nationality policy, information and foreign ties, told them that among their most important achievements and tasks was the promotion of trade with and investment in Daghestan by dealing with the headquarters of the ...