Dagestan recovered through force – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

The Dagestan parliament on Thursday approved amendments to the republic’s constitution, bringing it in line with updated federal legislation. This procedure, which has become a formality in dozens of other regions, caused an unexpectedly violent reaction from many Dagestani public figures and social media users. The authorities have gone to great lengths to try to convince fellow countrymen that the proposed changes do not weaken Dagestan or threaten its territorial integrity.

The voting itself at the session of the People’s Assembly went quite smoothly: only two deputies out of 78 who voted against the changes, two more abstained. On the other hand, the “prelude” to the October session turned out to be quite stormy. In recent weeks, public figures, non-state media and social media users have been actively discussing three amendments approved by parliament in the first reading at the end of June as part of bringing republican legislation in line with the new federal law on public authority.

The first change concerns the annual report of the government of Dagestan to the parliament: now it will be done not by the head of the region, but by the chairman of the cabinet. Critics of this innovation insisted that the one who appoints the prime minister and ministers should be accountable for the work of the government. The second amendment removes the limit on the number of terms during which one person can remain the head of the republic. As speaker Zaur Askenderov reminded the deputies at the session, more than 30 constituent entities of the Russian Federation have already approved this norm, including the regions of the North Caucasus – Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Chechnya and the Stavropol Territory.

But most of all, the Dagestanis were “excited” by the third amendment, which relieves the head of the republic of responsibility for its territorial integrity.

The range of reactions to it turned out to be wide: from alertness and a proposal to postpone the solution of this issue to a violent protest with calls for rallies and civil disobedience. Critics of the amendment recalled the unfinished work of delimiting borders with neighboring regions and the excesses that happened on the border with Chechnya in the summer of 2019. If the head of the republic abdicates responsibility for the territorial integrity of Dagestan, let him go, said the most radical participants in the discussion.

Before the October session, the authorities of the republic managed to discuss controversial issues at a scientific and practical conference with the participation of scientists from Moscow State University, and at the Public Chamber of Dagestan, and at a round table at the Ministry of National Policy. The last event, held three days before the session, turned out to be the most scandalous. As speaker Askenderov later emphasized, the organizers did their best to give the critics of the amendments a chance to speak, for which even the representatives of the parliament had to remain silent. However, photos and videos were published on social networks, from which it followed that the majority of critical public figures simply could not get into the hall where the round table was held.

Finally, on October 25, the head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, spoke about the amendments. “Attempts by activists to play on this important topic for the republic cause outrage,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.- It is surprising that individual citizens who call themselves social activists and allegedly care about the integrity of the republic, themselves create the ground for dividing the Dagestanis. It has already reached the point that our guys from the front line call me and ask: is it true that I refuse to be responsible for the integrity of the territory of Dagestan? Of course it’s not.”

Mr. Melikov urged everyone who “does not fully understand the current situation and makes unfounded claims” not to engage in self-promotion, not to mislead the Dagestanis and not to escalate the situation.

“Not a single important decision will be made without the consent of the entire Dagestan people,” he promised. “This is spelled out in a separate article of our Basic Law. I have already said this, but I will repeat it again: as the head of the region, as a military general, and finally, as a Dagestani, I will ALWAYS defend the territorial integrity of my native republic.”

On the eve of the session, it became known that the mayor’s office of Makhachkala did not agree on a rally of opponents of the amendments, which they wanted to hold in the city center on October 27. In the morning, the area in front of the White House was encircled by law enforcement officers and covered with police tape, and it was possible to get to the government building only through metal detectors.

Artur Israpilov, head of the parliamentary committee on legislation and state building, who presented the bill, once again explained in detail to the deputies the essence of the amendments and assured them that “this is not about removing responsibility and powers from the head of the subject, but about clearly delimiting the powers of the head of the subject from powers of the Russian Federation. The head of Dagestan does not stop dealing with territorial issues, the deputy emphasized: “All issues related to changing, establishing borders are resolved in the subject. No one can do this without a referendum, without the participation of the people, behind their backs.”

All deputies who spoke supported the speaker. And vice-speaker Saigidakhmed Akhmedov, admitting the mistakes of the authorities (“we did a poor job of campaigning, we should have talked to people more”), saw outside interference in the opponents’ actions (“I’m not sure that some special services do not use this situation”) .

“We must vote for the adoption of this law unanimously, so that among the people there they don’t think that they didn’t work something out there,” the vice speaker urged his colleagues.

It was not enough to reach unanimity, but Zaur Askenderov urged the deputies not to relax and to go to the places tomorrow to voters in order to convey to them the essence of the amendments made to the constitution. “The agenda has been exhausted, but our work is just beginning,” he concluded.

Julia Rybina, Makhachkala