By Valery Dzutsev
On August 9, deputy mayor
of the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt,
Salimkhan Jamaldinov, was fired for his son’s involvement in the insurgency.
Earlier on August 7, law enforcement cornered a group of suspected rebels in a
private house in Khasavyurt. After lengthy negotiations, three suspects
surrendered themselves, including the deputy mayor’s son, 31-year-old Iskhak
Jamaldinov. One of the suspected rebels refused to surrender and was killed by government
forces. In a special statement, president of Dagestan,
Magomedsalam Magomedov said: “People who failed to bring up their own children
as law-abiding citizens and did not make timely steps to undercut their
relatives’ connections to the terrorist groups, must immediately step down from
their positions in the government” (http://www.riadagestan.ru/news/2012/8/9/140753/).
According to official sources,
Iskhak Jamaldinov began aiding the insurgents in 2010. It is, therefore,
unclear why the deputy mayor was not dismissed from his position previously if
the authorities were aware of his son’s crimes. It is also highly legally dubious
for an official to be dismissed simply because his or her relative joined the
insurgents. It is hardly lawful to fire workers for failing to bring up
law-abiding citizens. If this is the rule, then why are relatives punished only
for their kin’s participation in the insurgency and not for other crimes? A
website with a reputation of being close to the Russian security services, Lifenews.ru,
alleged that not only Salimkhan Jamaldinov’s son, but also his daughter, his
nephew and he himself had a history of being involved in the insurgency (http://lifenews.ru/news/99198). If,
even with this knowledge, the Russian security services were unable to remove
Jamaldinov from office, it implies the opposition to Moscow
in Dagestan may be much more widespread than
is often assumed.
Journalist Orkhan Jemal
told the website Ekho Kavkaza that the children of Khasavyurt elites have often
been implicated in having connections to the insurgency. The time when people
joined the insurgents because of poverty or other social problems is in the
distant past, according to Jemal. Now, the journalist says, people join the
insurgency on ideological grounds, a development that cannot be reversed
through economic improvement and social means (http://www.ekhokavkaza.com/content/article/24673322.html).
The news thus appears to
confirm reports about a deepening crisis in Dagestan.
The government’s attempts to instill the principle of collective punishment are
a sign of weakness that causes the republic’s further departure of from the
Russian legal sphere.
