Enver Kisriev: project "Peace to the Caucasus" may draw officials' attention to regional problems

The project "Peace to the Caucasus" and the report of the Russian Public Chamber's working group on development of public dialogue and institutes of civil society in the Caucasus will give nothing in the practical sense, but will at least help to bring the materials to the knowledge of high-ranking officials. This is the opinion of candidate of philosophy, senior scientific worker Enver Kisriev, head of the division of sociology of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Dagestan Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Let us remind that on April 13 the above working group told about the results of the open public debates held in Dagestan in October 2009, in Ingushetia in December 2009, in Karachai-Circassia in February 2010 and in North Ossetia in March 2010.

"In practical sense, certainly, the 'Peace to the Caucasus' will give nothing, but it's nice that such project exists," Mr Kisriev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent and added that the project enabled presenting the results of the debates "upward", which can bring practical results, in case political will is demonstrated.

In the opinion of the scientist, nobody in the Public Chamber in the course of debates mentioned the main thing. "They say, in particular, that Plenipotentiary Khloponin likes to repeat: we'll not give them fish, we'll give them fishing rods - they'll catch fish themselves. However, in the Caucasus they don't even need fishing rods - fishermen should be just let to the river bank," Mr Kisriev said.

"We need a legal structure - people should know that if they open some business, nobody will come and take it away. That militia won't come and kill, or won't start blackmailing or extorting; or that some local oligarch won't first demand to share the revenues, and later, seeing that the business is profitable, won't embezzle it with the help of baited power agents. The Caucasus needs legal order. But nobody said about it," Enver Kisriev has noted.

He also believes that the main problem of the region is "the general policy adopted by the country's leadership in relation to Northern Caucasus", which, in his opinion, aggravates the situation.

The scientist said that when the participants of the project visited the republics of the Caucasus, he also took part in the events: "There were hearings; no decisions were made, various suggestions were moved; and everybody was offered to take further part in drafting the report in Northern Caucasus." According to Kisriev, in the end of spring the participants of the project plan to visit Chechnya and Kabardino-Balkaria, which they have not yet visited; then, possibly, they will start drafting recommendations for the leadership.

Enver Kisriev said that he would not like to criticize his colleagues involved in the project "Peace to the Caucasus," but the this very action, called to increase the role of the civil society in addressing the problems of Northern Caucasus, in his opinion, "makes rather burdensome impression" as "the Public Chamber appeared to be not a public organization, which is controlling the authorities and moving offers, but "a filtering horn for expressing people's statements", which are rinsed, reviewed and finally "in the smoothed form put to the leaders' tables."

In his opinion, the position of the Public Chamber excludes any criticism of the authorities, which in the Caucasus "is not heard all the same". "What happens in Northern Caucasus is nicely known to scientists; and respected journalists, political analysts, commentators and leaders of public organizations have no need to go there for 'studying the region'. It is studied by researchers and scientists, who publish, by the way, their works in scientific publications," Kisriev has noted and added that such authors may be invited and listened to. The projects like "Peace to the Caucasus" make "an additional barrier between the people and the power, which exempts the latter from importunate problems," the scientist believes.

Maxim Shevchenko, a journalist from Channel One and a member of the Russian Public Chamber, said earlier that the project had caused positive reaction in Northern Caucasus.

"The republics are very positive to the project. We were told that it had aroused huge enthusiasm in Northern Caucasus; they asked us not to stop and go ahead, saying that should we stop the project, it would be perceived as a huge defeat," said Mr Shevchenko. According to his story, the project was also treated as "one of the last hopes of the Caucasus for improvement of the situation."

Maxim Shevchenko believes that the organizers of the project "have so far achieved everything they wanted," and now "it's time to move particular proposals addressed to President and Government on modernization of the Caucasus on behalf of the Public Chamber."

The meeting at the Public Chamber was addressed by Ella Pamfilova, chair of the Board at the President of the Russian Federation on promotion of civil society institutes and human rights and chair of the Presidium of the All-Russian Social Movement "Civil Dignity", who asked to prepare proposals by the meeting with Russian President on how to go on with the Caucasian policy.

Journalist Ruslan Kurbanov, a senior scientific collaborator of the Division of Middle Asia and Caucasus of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes it important "to set up business creative contacts between colleagues from the republics, which should promote in overcoming the today's drawbacks."

"Our problem is that we lack horizontal links and interaction among journalists from North-Caucasian republics. Young men from neighbouring republics know nothing about each other's life; and here is the great responsibility of journalists. We should write about each other, visit our neighbours and have meetings: this is the only way to overcome barriers," said Mr Kurbanov.

Vladimir Mamontov, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and President of the editorial board of the "Izvestia" newspaper, has noted, speaking about the debates "Peace to the Caucasus" held in North Ossetia, that "people spoke about the problems characteristic for the overwhelming majority of Russian regions; however, there are many problems having specific character."

"There are many delicate problems, which need 'fine tuning', but there are also things, which should be done all over Russia. We must put an end to unemployment and stop closing schools. As soon as we close a school - the village dies out. Lately, Russia closed 41,000 rural schools because of lack of pupils; they try to carry schoolchildren by buses, invent other 'clever things', but the situation becomes still worse," Mr Mamontov said.