Ruslan Aushev
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Ruslan Sultanovich Aushev (Ingush: Ruslan Aush-Nyakn) (born October 29, 1954 in Volodarskoye, Kazakhstan) was the president of Ingushetia from March 1993 through December 2001. He was reportedly the youngest officer in the Soviet army to reach the rank of Lieutenant General [1]. He received the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union on May 7, 1982.
After three years at the Frunze Military Academy, Aushev returned to Afghanistan in charge of a combat regiment where he was wounded on October 16, 1986. Later he ascended to the Soviet parliament where he remained for two years while serving on the Military Affairs Committee. In November of 1992 Aushev was appointed to lead the provisional administration in Ingushetia, a position he resigned two months later to run in the Ingushetian presidential elections. Being the sole candidate, he won the presidency on February 28, 1993 with 99.99% of the vote[2], and he was re-elected two years later.
During the First Chechen War as many as 200,000 refugees from Chechnya and neighboring North Ossetia strained Ingushetia's already weak economy and on several occasions, Aushev protested incursions by Russian soldiers, and even threatened to sue the Russian Ministry of Defence for damages inflicted. President Aushev said that his people could not forget how the same Russian armored columns "and the same Defense Minister" (Grachev) assisted in the destruction of Ingush settlements and the expulsion of Ingush population during the 1992 ethnic conflict in North Ossetia.[1] In the BBC's documentary about Beslan Aushev said that as a politician he had been sympathetic to the Chechens.
His term as president of Ingushetia ended in 2002 and on May 23, 2002 Murat Zyazikov was elected president of Ingushetia under controversial circumstances. Since then the republic has become more violent. [3]
Then Aushev was elected to the Federation Council of Russia in December 1993, a position he resigned in April of 2003. Aushev served as a negotiator on the second day of the Beslan school hostage crisis, convincing the hostage-takers to release 26 nursing women and their infants.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- (Russian) The first president of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev's website.
- (Russian)Biography
- Ruslan Aushev: Russia's Champion At Getting Out The Vote by Laura Belin, Radio Free Europe.
- Computer translation of the Aushev's bio at grankin.ru.
- Three Days in September (2006). Directed by Joe Halderman, narrated by Julia Roberts. Full Credits
