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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Zhirinovsky comments spark outrage across North Caucasus
2013-11-08
The chairman of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and Russian State Duma deputy speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky has sparked outrage from North Caucasus officials by making pejorative remarks about the region. On a TV talk show late last month, Zhirinovsky advocated putting up a barbed wire fence to separate the North Caucasus from the rest of the Russian Federation and taking measures to reduce the birth rate there, which included imposing a financial penalty for the birth of a third child

The first regional official to condemn Zhirinovsky was Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. In an Instagram post on October 26, two days after the remark, Kadyrov dismissed Zhirinovsky as "immoral and irresponsible" and "a pitiful nonentity" motivated by hatred, not just for the peoples of the Caucasus, but Russians, too.

Meanwhile, the Chechen parliament met in an emergency session and unanimously approved a proposal to lodge a formal protest with the State Duma. Chechen lawmakers also resolved to draft individual appeals to other Russian officials, stressing that criminal charges of inciting inter-ethnic hatred and calling for the destruction of Russian statehood should be brought against Zhirinovsky.

It was only October 31 that the parliaments of Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria adopted statements denouncing Zhirinovsky and demanding disciplinary action against him. The reasons for that delay are unclear. It is conceivable that the Russian leadership has finally lost patience with Zhirinovsky and intends to discipline him, but did not want to do so solely in response to demands from Grozny so as not to substantiate the supposition that Kadyrov has already become the tail that wags the Kremlin dog.
Posted by:ryuge

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