Murat Zyazikov

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Murat Zyazikov

Murat Magometovich Zyazikov (Russian: Мура́т Магоме́тович Зя́зиков) (born September 10, 1957) is the president of the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia. He was born in what is now Kyrgyzstan.

In the 1980s, Zyazikov was a member of the KGB and later the FSB. In the 1990s he became part of Ingushetia's security council and on May 23, 2002 he was elected president of the republic in the controversional circumstances. Zyazikov is considered a close ally with Russian president Vladimir Putin, especially because of his province's proximity to Chechnya.

On April 6, 2004, Zyazikov was lightly wounded when a car bomb was rammed into his motorcade (he sat in an armored Mercedes W140) on the main road near the city of Nazran. Chechen rebels were blamed for that attack and a June 2004 raid in Ingushetia that killed more than 90 people.

On February 27, 2006, Zyazikov's father-in-law (and a member of provincial legislature) Magomed Chakhkiyev was kidnapped in Nazran after his car was shot at and crashed. On March 30, 2006 the kidnappers made their demands: they wanted Zyazikov and Ingushetia prosecutor general Makhmud Ali Kalimatov to resign in exchange for Chakhkiyev's release.[1] He was released by the police on May 1, 2006, apparently without any payments to the kidnappers. The kidnappers have not been arrested.[2]

On March 23, 2007 his 72-year-old uncle, Uruskhan Zyazikov, was kidnapped in Barsuki, Ingushetia by four armed men.[3] A reward of 2,000,000 rubles (approximately $77,200 or €57,500) for information leading to his return was announced on March 29, 2007. No demands have yet been made by the kidnappers at that point.[4] On June 29, 2007, Zyazikov has announced at a press-conference that his uncle is still alive. He didn't offer any more information about the kidnapping. The Interior Minister of Ingushetia, Beslan Khamkhoyev, has resigned and was replaced by Musa Medov a day before that, apparently as a fallout from the kidnapping.[5] The uncle was released by the kidnappers unharmed on October 11, 2007.[6]

Zyazikov has been accused by the government critics of corruption and inability to deal with political unrest which has plagues the Ingush republic in recent months. The opposition attribute the growing violence to popular anger fueled by alleged abductions, beatings, unlawful arrests and killings of suspects by the federal forces and local police and allied paramilitaries. Amid the increasing tensions, Zyazikov fired his government in March 2008, and called for further social and economic reforms.^[1]

Zyazikov is also the president of FC Angusht Nazran.