MAGAS, September 8 (RIA Novosti) – Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was re-elected Sunday for a second term as head of Russia’s volatile North Caucasus Republic of Ingushetia, officials said.
Yevkurov, 50, a former paratrooper and decorated military officer, has headed Ingushetia, Russia’s smallest republic, since October 2008.
He was supported by 25 out of 27 deputies of Ingushetia People’s Assembly in a secret ballot, speaker Mukharbek Didigov said Sunday.
Following the announcement, Yevkurov asked the parliament to inaugurate him immediately to start his work “as soon as possible” and was promptly sworn in.
Yevkurov stepped down in early July to seek reelection to the post, and President Vladimir Putin appointed him the republic’s acting head. His term was due to expire in October.
Ingushetia and nearby Dagestan are Russia’s two provinces that waived direct gubernatorial elections that were re-introduced last year, and opted in favor of a parliamentary vote instead.
Ingushetia, that borders Chechnya and shares close ethnic and linguistic ties with the war-scarred republic, is plagued by an Islamist insurgency that spread from Chechnya after separatist conflicts that started in the mid-1990s.
Frequent attacks on security forces, police officers and civilians in Ingushetia and other republics of the multi-ethnic and predominantly Muslim Caucasus region are also are generated by ethnic, religious and political rivalries, as well as poverty and corruption.
updates with Yevkurov’s inauguration, details throughout