Ingushetia's parliament voted on October 20 with only two abstentions
to approve republican Security Council Secretary Aleksei Vorobyov as
prime minister.
Ingushetian
President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov had brought Vorobyov, a Federal Security
Service (FSB) general, to Magas early this year, just months after he
himself was named president, and selected him to serve as acting prime
minister after he
dismissed Rashid Gaysanov and the entire cabinet on October 5.
Gaysanov,
37, is an economist who served from late 1999-2002 as economy minister
under President Ruslan Aushev, and then from 2006-08 on the staff of
the Russian presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District.
Yevkurov named him prime minister in November 2008.
Yevkurov's
stated
rationale for dismissing the cabinet was twofold: the failure of
certain unnamed ministers to discharge their responsibilities, and
corruption. He said the problem was not Gaysanov, but Gaysanov's
infelicitous distribution of cabinet posts that obstructed the
effective and coordinated functioning of the government as a whole.
Gaysanov admitted in a brief
statement
on October 6 that "there was much that we did not succeed in doing." At
the same time, he listed as his cabinet's positive achievements
maintaining stability (following the June 22 assassination attempt on
Yevkurov) and drafting programs for resolving the most pressing
socioeconomic problems.
Ingush opposition politician Magomed Khazbiyev, however, told the Russian daily "
Kommersant"
that he is convinced that Yevkurov's primary objective was to get rid
of Gaysanov because of what Khazbiyev termed the latter's
"inappropriate behavior" during the two months (from late June to late
August) when Gaysanov assumed the post of acting president while
Yevkurov was recuperating from the abortive attempt on his life.
Vorobyov's
appointment is likely to intensify the rift within the small but vocal
Ingush opposition. Khazbiyev, who heads the more radical wing, has gone
on record as arguing that the republic's prime minister should be an
Ingush, not a Russian.
"Who is Vorobyov? Where is he from? And what does he know about Ingushetia?" Khazbiyev
asked
rhetorically. "There are good lads in Ingushetia, and 10,000 Vorobyovs
aren't capable of accomplishing what they could," he added.
By contrast, Maksharip Aushev of the moderate opposition faction that agreed to support and cooperate with Yevkurov positively
assessed
Vorobyov's track record since his appointment as Security Council head.
Aushev described Vorobyov as "courageous" and "a professional who is
well acquainted with the situation in the republic." He said he would
support Vorobyov's candidacy as prime minister if Yevkurov proposed it.
Oksana Goncharenko of the Center for Political Forecasting has
pointed out
that Yevkurov was in a difficult position given the limited number of
competent and trustworthy personnel to choose from within the republic
(which has a total population of just over 500,000). But, she
continued, if he therefore opts to bring in people he trusts from
outside Ingushetia, with Moscow's support, there is no guarantee that
they will prove capable of working side by side with the local
political elite, especially given that Ingushetia remains "a
traditional clan-based society."
Vorobyov now has until the end of October to select his new cabinet.
http://www.rferl.org/content/Ingushetian_Parliament_Endorses_Russian_As_Prime_Minister/1856715.html