Russia, which has managed to restore peace in the North Caucasus, is now to prove that the social and economic situation in the region can also be improved, the country's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.
Speaking at a meeting on social and economic development of the newly established North Caucasus Federal District, the prime minister said it was hard for Russia to defeat terrorism in the region and topple those who seized power in the republic of Chechnya in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when it was torn by brutal separatist wars.
"Then, we won together and restored peace. Now, we should make a new step, which is apparently not easier," Putin said at the meeting in Pyatigorsk, the capital of the new district, which would include North Caucasus provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachai-Circassia.
Although militant activity has decreased in Chechnya since the last war, the republic has been recently swept by a fresh wave of violence. Shootouts and attacks on troops, police and other officials have been reported almost daily. The neighboring, mainly Muslim, regions of Russia have also been plagued by instability.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev highlighted a surge of violence in the region in his state-of-the-nation address in November 2008, criticizing local authorities for their failure to curb poverty and corruption and pledging radical measures.
Medvedev has described the North Caucasus's economic backwardness, rampant militant violence and clan rivalry as a key national security threat.
Putin said on Saturday "the state should prove that it is able to guarantee security, justice and respect for law, to strengthen stability, civil peace and interethnic concord, to reach the decisive turning point in economic and social development in the North Caucasus."
The Russian president announced the establishment the North Caucasus Federal District on Tuesday and appointed Krasnoyarsk governor and former business executive Alexander Khloponin as deputy prime minister and president's envoy to the volatile North Caucasus. Analysts describe Khloponin as a "crisis manager" for the region.
Khloponin has headed the Krasnoyarsk Territory, a vast Siberian province nearly four times the size of France, since 2002. His gubernatorial term was marked with a fast economic growth in the region and a visible improvement in living standards.
Parliament is still to approve the creation of the new administrative unit, which Khloponin will oversee.
So far, most North Caucasus tsars appointed by Moscow have focused on beefing up security measures in the region.
On Saturday, Putin ordered Khloponin to develop a complex strategy to increase social and economic stability in the region. He said special economic zones and industrial parks should be established in the North Caucasus to attract investments to the region.
PYATIGORSK, January 23 (RIA Novosti)
