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ACPC Weekly News UPDATE
October 12, 2009 – October 18, 2009
 
Ingush President nominates new prime minister after dismissing cabinet



Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov nominated Aleksei Vorobyov as prime minister last week after dismissing his cabinet earlier this month. Aleksei Vorobyov, who previously held the post of secretary of Ingushetia’s Security Council, is expected to be approved by the parliament of Ingushetia by the end of the month. At the time, Yevkurov stated that the dismissal was a necessary measure due to a lack of “understanding” over ways to improve the socio-economic situation in the republic. Ingushetia is one of the most corrupt and impoverished regions in Russia with official unemployment at 54%, one of the main factors contributing to a recent surge in violence and militant activity, according to regional experts and government officials.
 
President Yevkurov has named fighting corruption one of his top priorities resulting in over 30 criminal cases brought against current and former officials to date. This task, however, has proven perilous as demonstrated by the murder of the construction minister in August who had ordered a review of major construction projects allocated under the previous president, Murat Zyazikov. Also, a television crew filming a documentary about corruption in Ingushetia was reportedly assaulted last week by a close relative of Zyazikov after filming the residence of the former president. 
 
Meanwhile, a recent lull in violence was disrupted when a car bomb targeting a police convoy exploded in the republic’s capital, Magas, on Sunday. Earlier in the day, authorities carried out a controlled explosion of another car bomb, which was discovered parked by a bus stop in Nazran. No one was injured during the explosions. On Friday, October 16, five militants, including one woman, were killed by authorities during a raid in the Sunzhensky region, close to the Chechen border, where counter-terror operations have been ongoing since October 12, following clashes that killed three servicemen and seven militants.
 
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Russia accuses Georgia of aiding North Caucasus militants with ties to Al-Qaeda



Calling the claim “preposterous,” Georgia vehemently denied Russian accusations that Georgian secret services were training and aiding Al-Qaeda agents planning terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus. Earlier last week, Aleksandr Bortnikov, the director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), said that “audio evidence seized from insurgents shows that, together with emissaries of Al-Qaeda, they had contacts with representatives of the Georgian secret services” and that Georgia “perpetually undertakes to deliver weapons, explosives and financing for subversive acts on high security sites in Dagestan.” Georgia accused Russia of stoking tensions and of planning to use the accusations as a “pretext” in case of “aggressive actions against Georgia.”
Earlier this year, a propaganda video surfaced on numerous rebel websites showing militants traversing through mountainous areas and stating that they were en route to Georgia to pick up arms and supplies. Chechen militants have been known to use the Pankisi gorge, a remote and mountainous region in Georgia on the border with Chechnya, as a base for training and rearmament during the first two Chechen wars. Around the same time, Zaal Kasrelishvilli, the chair of the Confederation of the Peoples of the Caucasus, stated in an interview with the Georgian daily Kviris Palitra that there was indeed a group of around 40 Chechen militants located in the Pankisi gorge ready to cross over into Chechnya and warned that this could be seen as a provocation by Russian authorities to justify another military incursion into Georgia.
 
 
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