Ruslan Aushev

Last updated

Ruslan Sultanovich Aushev [lower-alpha 1] (born 29 October 1954) is a former politician. He 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 was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 7 May 1982 for his actions in Afghanistan. Aushev has emerged as Ingushetia's most popular politician, having kept peace and stability during the First Chechen War.

Contents

Early life

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

Military service

Aushev entered the Soviet military in 1971 and graduated from the Ordzhonikidze Higher Combined-Arms Command School in 1975, after which he served in the North Caucasus Military District, where he rose to the position of chief of staff of a motorized rifle battalion before he was deployed to Afghanistan in 1980. There he commanded a motorized rifle battalion of the 180th Motorized Rifle Regiment as part of a limited contingent of Soviet troops in the country. After successfully leading his battalion through a dangerous engagement with rebels who tried to ambush them, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin on 7 May 1982. After his first deployment to Afghanistan he attended the M. V. Frunze Military Academy which he graduated from 1985 before he returned to Afghanistan as a Major. On 16 October 1986 he suffered serious injuries in the Salang Pass, but eventually returned to service. From 1989 to 1991 he studied at the Military Academy of the General Staff and graduated with honors. He was promoted to the rank of General-Major in 1991 and to the rank of General-Lieutenant in 1997. [2]

Political career

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, [3] and he was re-elected five 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. [4]

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 from is 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. [5]

Personal life

Aushev is married to Aza Ausheva, [6] 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

Notes

  1. Russian: Русла́н Султа́нович А́ушев; Ingush: Овшанаькъан Солта Руслан, romanized: Ovshanäqhan Solta Ruslan

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Chechen War</span> 1994–96 invasion of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria by the Russian Federation

The First Chechen War, also referred to as the First Russo-Chechen War, was a struggle for independence waged by the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria against the Russian Federation from December 11th, 1994 to August 31st, 1996. This conflict was preceded by the battle of Grozny in November 1994, during which Russia covertly sought to overthrow the new Chechen government. Following the intense Battle of Grozny in 1994–1995, which concluded as a pyrrhic victory for the Russian federal forces, their subsequent efforts to establish control over the remaining lowlands and mountainous regions of Chechnya were met with fierce resistance from Chechen guerrillas who often conducted surprise raids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dzhokhar Dudayev</span> First President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev was a Chechen politician, statesman and military leader of the 1990s Chechen Independence movement from Russia. He served as the first president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from 1991 until his assassination in 1996. Previously he had been a Major General of Aviation in the Soviet Armed Forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingushetia</span> Republic in Russia

Ingushetia or Ingushetiya, officially the Republic of Ingushetia, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country of Georgia to its south; and borders the Russian republics of North Ossetia–Alania to its west and north and Chechnya to its east and northeast.

Ingush, historically known as Durdzuks, Gligvi and Kists, are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group mainly inhabiting Ingushetia in central Caucasus, but also inhabitanting Prigorodny District and town of Vladikavkaz of modern day North-Ossetia. The Ingush are predominantly Sunni Muslims and speak the Ingush language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beslan school siege</span> 2004 Russian hostage crisis and massacre

The Beslan school siege was a terrorist attack that started on 1 September 2004, lasted three days, involved the imprisonment of more than 1,100 people as hostages and ended with the deaths of 333 people, 186 of them children, as well as 31 of the attackers. It is considered to be the deadliest school shooting in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murat Zyazikov</span> President of Ingushetia from 2002 to 2008

Murat Magometovich Zyazikov is a Russian politician who was the second president of the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia. He was born in what is now Kyrgyzstan. Zyazikov was a controversial politician in Ingushetia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic</span> Autonomous republic within the former Russian SFSR

The Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Checheno-Ingush ASSR, was an autonomous republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in existence from 1936 to 1944 and again from 1957 to 1993. Its capital was Grozny. The 1979 census reported the territory had an area of 19,300 square kilometres (7,500 sq mi) and a population of 1,155,805 : 611,405 Chechens, 134,744 Ingush, and the rest were Russians and other ethnic groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Prigorodny conflict</span> Ethnic conflict between Ingush and Ossetians in North Ossetia

The East Prigorodny conflict, also referred to as the Ossetian–Ingush conflict, was an inter-ethnic conflict within Russian Federation, in the eastern part of the Prigorodny District in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, which started in 1989 and developed, in 1992, into a brief ethnic war between local Ingush and Ossetian paramilitary forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruslan Gelayev</span> Chechen military commander

Hamzat (Ruslan) Gelayev was a prominent commander in the Chechen resistance movement against Russia, in which he played a significant, yet controversial, military and political role in the 1990s and early 2000s. Gelayev was commonly viewed as an abrek and a well-respected, ruthless fighter. His operations spread well beyond the borders of Chechnya and even outside the Russian Federation and into Georgia. He was killed while leading a raid into the Russian Republic of Dagestan in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magomed Yevloyev</span>

Magomed Yakhyаvich Yevloyev was a Russian journalist, lawyer, and businessman, and the owner of the news website Ingushetiya.ru, known for being highly critical of Murat Zyazikov, the President of Ingushetia, a federal subject of Russia locating in the North Caucasus region. Magomed Yevloyev is not to be confused with the Ingush rebel leader Akhmed Yevloyev, who is also known as Magomed, or with the 20-year-old also named Magomed Yevloyev who is suspected of being a suicide bomber in the Domodedovo International Airport bombing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yunus-bek Yevkurov</span> Deputy Defence Minister of Russia

Yunus-bek Bamatgireyevich Yevkurov is a Russian colonel general and politician. He was the head of the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia, appointed by President Dmitry Medvedev, from 31 October 2008 to 24 June 2019. The following day, the People's Assembly of the Republic of Ingushetia, the republic's regional parliament, voted in favor of Yevkurov's appointment, making him the third Head of Ingushetia. He is a career soldier, paratrooper, and Hero of the Russian Federation who was involved in numerous conflicts where Russia played a key role, including Kosovo (1999) and Chechnya. On 22 June 2009, Yevkurov was seriously injured following a car-bomb attack on his motorcade in the city of Nazran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Head of the Republic of Ingushetia</span> Highest-ranking official in Ingushetia, Russia

The head of the Republic of Ingushetia is the highest office within the Government of Ingushetia, Russia. The head is elected by Parliament of Ingushetia. Term of service is five years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insurgency in Ingushetia</span> 2007–2015 armed conflict in Ingushetia, Russia

The Insurgency in Ingushetia began in 2007 as an escalation of an insurgency in Ingushetia connected to the separatist conflict in Chechnya. The conflict has been described as a civil war by local human rights activists and opposition politicians; others have referred to it as an uprising. By mid-2009 Ingushetia had surpassed Chechnya as the most violent of the North Caucasus republics. However, by 2015 the insurgency in the Republic had greatly weakened, and the casualty toll declined substantially in the intervening years.

Bashir Magometovich Aushev was a Russian politician of Ingush descent, who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Ingushetia from 2002 until 2008.

Maksharip Magometovich Aushev was an Ingush businessman and opposition leader in the Republic of Ingushetia, a federal subject of the Russian Federation. Aushev had taken over the opposition website, Ingushetia.org, after its owner, Magomed Yevloyev, a vocal critic of the Ingush government, was shot and killed while in police custody.

Ruslan Izrailovich Mamilov was the first Ingush sculptor. In 1990, he was awarded the title of the "Honored Artist of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR". He was considered one of the most talented Ingush artists of his time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musa Keligov</span> Russian politician (born 1963)

Musa Bamatovich Keligov is a Russian politician and former vice-president of "Lukoil-International".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tulkun Kasimov</span> Uzbek general

Tulkun Kasimov is a Soviet-Uzbek retired military officer who has served as first person to hold the post of Chief of the Joint Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of Uzbekistan from 2000 to 2003. After retirement, he served in the reserve of the Armed Forces.

References

  1. Books.google.com
  2. Smirnov, Vitaly. Аушев Руслан Султанович. warheroes.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  3. Persons – NUPI NUPI
  4. Archives Archived 8 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine INFO RUSS
  5. Ingushetia Descending into Civil War – Aushev. The Other Russia website. 30 September 2008.
  6. Ильсур Метшин награждён памятной медалью «25 лет вывода войск из Афганистана»
Ruslan Aushev
Руслан Аушев
Овшанаькъан Руслан
AushevR.jpg
Aushev in 2008
Russian Federation Senator
from the Republic of Ingushetia
In office
10 January 2002 23 April 2002