Magas/Agency Caucasus – Public criticism of Musa Medov, the Interior Minister of Ingushetiya, for his inability to prevent the destructive spiral of violence from growing has prompted the Russian administration in Moscow to dismiss him from his position.
Russia’s Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev replaced Medov with Ruslan Meyriyev, who had worked as head of an Interior Ministry office in the town of Nijnevartovski. Ingush President Yunusbek Yevkurov and Deputy Russian Interior Minister Arkadi Yedelev introduced Meyriyev on Tuesday to the police organization.
Medov was the Interior Minister since June of 2007. He has now been promoted to generalship.
He was being harshly criticized for the military operations against members of the resistance. The criticism has reached a higher level after the opposition charged him with allowing Magomed Yevloyev, who owned and ran the ingushetiya.ru website, to be killed in August while he was in police custody. He once ordered the traffic police officers to shoot at the cars with coloured glasses unless the drivers moved their glasses down. This order of his even provoked the prosecutor into some reaction.
It is the administration in Moscow that is directly in control of appointing new ministers of interior to autonomous republics within the Russian Federation. KU/ÖZ/FT
