Political scientists continue arguing whether NCFD can solve North-Caucasian problems

According to Russian political scientist Sergey Markedonov, the problems of the Caucasus are political, not economic, but Alexander Khloponin, plenipotentiary of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), should be "loaded" with the political functional, which is "under-loaded" in him. In the opinion of Polish analyst Wojciech Gorecki, creation of the NCFD is a manifestation display of a new Moscow's tactics for Northern Caucasus.

"No investor with free money will ever come to the region, where people are kidnapped and violence is a bilateral practice. This is violence applied by radicals and - to a certain extent - by the state, not always properly addressed and not always of proper quality. This is the wildest level of corruption. Therefore, speaking that these are all economic problems and that not the general-governor but a competent corporate guy speaking English will come and change everything - is impossible," said Mr Markedonov at the extended debate "Conflicts in the Caucasus", held within the series of debates "War and Peace" in Moscow in the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Centre.

In the opinion of Mr Gorecki, the new federal district formed on January 19 this year by Decree of President Medvedev is "a manifestation of the new Moscow's tactics for Northern Caucasus."

"We can characterize this new tactics, if any, as economic growth together with the power methods of managing the region. Confirmations are in two important statements of Russian leaders: firstly, by President Dmitri Medvedev who said on January 24 when talking to journalists that the Caucasus needs not dictator but manager and that the time of general-governors is over. And one day earlier, on January 23, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, speaking on the same topic at the sitting with heads of the regions included into the new federal district, expressed a similar vision and emphasized that one of the most important tasks of Khloponin, the new plenipotentiary of the district, would be to support NGOs," Wojciech Gorecki said in the course of the same discussion.

In his opinion, these statements evidence that the task of the new federal district and new plenipotentiary is the economic advance of the region, struggle against economic problems, growth of social and economic indicators up to the average Russian level, attraction of foreign and domestic investments, development of tourism and so on.

In his opinion, Russian leaders have recognized a failure of their former policy in the Caucasus. "For the last 20 years, the policy of the federal centre towards this region was purely reactionary. The authorities reacted to events, but did not offer any general concept and the general approach to positive proposals for the region with a prospect for at least several years into the future," said Mr Gorecki.

"We can also say that the aim of forming this new district is to set control over President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, who is a very independent politician. And, by my estimate, he has more independence than Maskhadov and Dudaev taken together," the Polish analyst believes.

According to his story, an important factor of forming the new federal district was also in "psychological aspect," connected with the forthcoming in 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

"And now Sochi is in another federal district, separately from most 'disfavoured' republics of Northern Caucasus. And now we can say that Sochi is not Caucasus, it is another federal district. This argument can always be moved against any concern about safety of the Olympic Games," Wojciech Gorecki has concluded.