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FACTBOX-Five facts on Ingush President Yevkurov
23 Jun 2009 12:59:41 GMT
 Source: Reuters
June 23 (Reuters) - Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the head of Russia's turbulent Ingushetia region, was fighting for his life on Tuesday after a suicide bomb dealt a fresh blow to Kremlin attempts to quell unrest in the North Caucasus.

Following are five facts on 45-year-old Yevkurov:

* Yevkurov, an ethnic Ingush, was born in 1963 in the neighbouring Russian republic of North Ossetia. A career soldier who rose to the rank of general, he graduated from the elite Ryazan Airborne Forces Academy. He was named a Hero of Russia for leading the audacious 1999 Russian operation to seize Pristina airport from under the noses of NATO forces advancing into Kosovo.

* Respected for his courage, Yevkurov had asked senior commanders not to send him into action when the Kremlin was fighting against rebels in next-door ethnically kin Chechnya. Laconic and known not to duck difficult questions, Yevkurov said that despite becoming a general he still did parachute jumps to keep in practice.

* "One can lead a column to Pristina every day but of course here in the republic things are far more difficult," he told visiting Western journalists months after the Kremlin appointed him the regional boss last October. Yevkurov was credited with trying to clampdown on official corruption and poverty, blamed for driving young people into the arms of Islamist rebels.

* In 1992 Yevkurov's home village in North Ossetia was embroiled in violent battles between the mainly Ingush residents and local North Ossetians, over land Soviet dictator Josef Stalin transferred to North Ossetia in 1944. Tens of thousands of Ingush fled North Ossetia and their demand to return home has bedevilled relations between the neighbouring republics and proven a major challenge to Yevkurov's presidency.

* Human rights groups say Yevkurov was straightforward to deal with and sincere in his efforts to rein in abuses by security forces. Yevkurov was also widely praised for his success in reconciling dozens of local clans involved in bloody feuds, which he said threatened the region's demography.


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Investigators work at the scene of a bomb explosion on the outskirts of Nazran June 22, 2009. The damaged car of Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov is pictured on the scene according ...


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Last updated:Tue Jun 23 13:01:29 2009