Analysts argue about relevance of anti-corruption checks in Northern Caucasus

When commenting on a report about an expensive Moscow apartment owned by a spouse of Deputy Prime Minister of Kabardino-Balkaria Muaed Kunizhev, lawyers have pointed out that the information about expensive real estate properties of relatives should become a reason for checking an official for corruption. Owning expensive apartments and cars is widely accepted in Northern Caucasus, and the society has recently shown little interest in stories of corruption, a political analyst argues.

The “Accents of the South” publication has reported that the spouse of Muaed Kunizhev is the owner of an apartment in Moscow worth at least 100 million roubles, while Muaed Kunizhev’s income for 2021 amounted to only 1.3 million roubles, and over the past 10 years, the maximum level of his annual income reached 2.25 million roubles.

In theory, the release of such a material should result in inspection by the law enforcement bodies or internal governmental check, notes lawyer Mikhail Benyash*. “But in fact, no such practices practically do work,” the lawyer emphasized.

The possibility of check depends on when the property was purchased, notes Vladimir Novitsky, the president of the Russian section of the International Society for Human Rights.

The practice when relatives of officials own expensive real estate properties and cars is especially common in regions, “which, due to the specifics of their historical development, are closer not to European countries, but to medieval sultanates, where the activities of public institutions are suppressed,” political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin suggests. “The regions I have mentioned include primarily the republics of Northern Caucasus,” he noted.

At the same time, the political analyst believes that in the current political situation, people have not much interest in news about corruption.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.