15:00, 22 May 2010

Ahmet Palankoev elected to be Senator from Ingushetia at the Council of Federation

Ingushetia has elected its new representative of its legislative body to the Council of Federation - Ahmet Palankoev, 47, an entrepreneur and patron of arts.

Since 2004, Mr Palankoev, who graduated from the economic department the Moscow Mining Institute, has been President of the Limited Liability Company (LLC) "Acropolis Group", which comprises a bank of the same name and many enterprises of the mining industry. He was repeatedly rated among wealthiest people of Russia. In 2007, magazine "Finans" ranked him to be the 266th in such rating with estimated capital of 200 million US dollars.

Mr Palankoev heads the "Azan" Fund, which is partially funding the construction of the Cathedral Mosque in the capital of the republic - the city of Magas. President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov named him among those 30 businessmen, whom he would like to present to Messrs Medvedev and Putin and on whose support he relied in restoration of the republic. The name of Keligov was also on the list, the "Gazeta.Ru" reports.

21 Ingush MPs voted For Palankoev and three were against, the ITAR-TASS Agency reports.