Ruslan Aushev

From Kazakhstan Encyclopedia

Template:Other uses Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Officeholder Template:Listen Ruslan Sultanovich Aushev (Russian: Русла́н Султа́нович А́ушев; born 29 October 1954 in Volodarskoye, Kazakhstan) was the president of Ingushetia from March 1993 to 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 7 May 1982. Aushev has emerged as Ingushetia's most popular politician, having kept peace and stability during the Chechen war.

Early life

Aushev was born on 29 October 1954 to an Ingush family living in Kazakhstan, who were deported from the Soviet Union in 1944. Very little is known about Aushev's early life.

Career

After three years at the Frunze Military Academy, Aushev returned to the Soviet war in Afghanistan in charge of a combat regiment where he was wounded on 16 October 1986. Later he ascended to the Soviet parliament where he remained for two years while serving on the Military Affairs Committee. In November 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 28 February 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" (Pavel Grachev) assisted in the destruction of Ingush settlements and the expulsion of Ingush population during the 1992 ethnic conflict in North Ossetia.[3]

He resigned in December 2001 and on 23 May 2002, Murat Zyazikov was elected president of Ingushetia under controversial circumstances. Since then the republic has become more violent.

Then Aushev was elected to the Federation Council of Russia, the upper house of the Russian Parliament in December 1993, a position he resigned in April 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.

On 30 September 2008, Aushev commented, in his interview to Echo of Moscow radio station, on the increasingly tense situation in Ingushetia, accusing the current authorities of excessive use of force in the republic, leading to the radicalization of the society and threatening to plunge Ingushetia into civil war. The opposition news website Ingushetia.org reported that the Ingush president Murat Zyazikov ordered the republic’s television and radio broadcasting center to block Echo of Moscow’s signal for the duration of Aushev’s appearance.[4]

Personal life

Aushev is married to Aza Ausheva,[5] and has two sons, Ali and Umar, and two daughters, Leila and Lema. Ruslan also had a brother who is unidentified (classified).

Honours and awards

See also

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References

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External links

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