Murtasa Gubaidullowitsch Rachimow

Cyrillic ( Bashkir )
	Мортаҙа Ғөбәйҙулла улы Рәхимов
Transl. :	Mortaz̦a Ġôba̋jz̦ulla uly Ra̋himov
Transcr. :	Mortasa Göbäjsulla uly Rächimow
Cyrillic ( Russian )
	Муртаза Губайдуллович Рахимов
Transl .:	Murtaza Gubajdullovič Rachimov
Transcr .:	Murtasa Gubaidullowitsch Rachimow

Murtasa Rakhimov

Murtasa Gubaidullowitsch Rachimow (born February 7, 1934 in Tawakanowo, Kugarchi district , Bashkir ASSR ) is a Russian - Bashkir politician. From December 1993 to July 2010 he was President of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan and last ruled it in his fourth term.

Life and political career

Rachimow went to a vocational school for prospective oil workers in Ufa and after graduating he worked as an engineer at a state oil refinery in Ufa. At the same time, he studied at the Ufa Mineral Oil Institute and graduated in 1964. In the following years, Rahimov continued to work in the refinery and finally became its director in 1986.

Rahimov's political career began in 1989 when he was elected a member of the Soviet People's Deputies Congress. As one of the most active advocates of the political sovereignty of the constituent republics, including Bashkortostan, he quickly gained popularity and became chairman of the Upper House of Bashkortostan in 1990 . During his tenure, in October 1990 the Agreement on the Sovereignty of Bashkortostan came into force, and on March 31, 1992 the Autonomous Republic of Bashkortostan was formed as a subject of the Russian Federation.

On December 12, 1993, Rahimov was elected the first President of the Republic of Bashkortostan in the elections in Bashkortostan, which ran at the same time as the Russian Duma elections. On December 24th of the same year the new constitution of the republic came into force, which provides for a five-year term of office for the president of the republic. On June 14, 1998, presidential elections were held again in Bashkortostan, in which Rakhimov was confirmed as the only admitted candidate. The course of this election was often criticized as undemocratic.

In 1999, Rahimov and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov acted as the founding initiator of the political organization Fatherland - All Russia (Russian Отечество - Вся Россия ), which emerged as the forerunner of the conservative United Russia party in the 1999 Duma elections as the third strongest party. With the founding of the party on December 1, 2001, Rakhimov became a member of the board of United Russia.

Rahimov with President Putin , June 2001

In the new presidential elections in Bashkortostan, which ran on December 7, 2003, Rakhimov missed an absolute majority in the first ballot, but with the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin was able to secure a majority against the main rival Sergei Weremejenko in the second ballot on December 21.

After a series of large-scale police raids with dozens of injured and arrested persons in the city of Blagoveshchensk in December 2004 , massive opposition protests against Rakhimov erupted in Bashkortostan. In September 2006, Rakhimov faced the vote of confidence in President Putin and was then again proposed as President of the Republic before the Parliament of Bashkortostan. On October 10, 2006 Parliament confirmed Rahimov in office, which means that he entered into his fourth legislative term ahead of time.

On July 15, 2010, Rahimov resigned before the end of his fourth term. According to press reports, the Kremlin had prepared the removal of Rahimov. In June 2010, the government-affiliated television broadcaster NTW showed a report in which Rahimov and his son Urals were massively accused of corruption and enrichment at the expense of the state. Ural Rakhimov then renounced another term as a member of the Bashkir parliament. In mid-July 2010, special units of the security organs are said to have been relocated to Bashkortostan in order to prevent possible unrest if Rahimov is dismissed.

Rahimov is married. His son, Ural Rakhimov (* 1961), was a member of the republican parliament of Bashkortostan until 2010 and director general of the Baschneft mineral oil company from 2005 to 2009 .

criticism

During his reign, Rakhimov saw himself increasingly fierce regional as well as Russia-wide criticism because he was accused of authoritarian rule. The second election of the Republic President in 1998 was criticized by liberal forces as unlawful, among other things because two opposition candidates were not allowed to vote despite a court order. In the 2003 elections, Rakhimov was also accused of having outdone his challenger Weremejenko in the second ballot with the help of unfair campaign methods. Some political scientists suspect that Rakhimov's previous concessions to the state power were the reason why Putin proposed Rahimov again as President Bashkortostan in 2006 despite opposition protests: In 2005, he gave in to pressure from Moscow and abandoned the privatization of the 1990s Bashkir oil company, which was classified as abusive by the Russian Audit Office in 2003.

In June 2009, Rakhimov hit the headlines again after verbally attacking the executive committee of the United Russia party, of which he is a member, in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, accusing him of organizational incapacity. Some high-ranking party members then described the remarks Rahimov was offensive and demanded that he be expelled from the party, which was rejected by chairman Boris Gryzlov .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Complete legal text
2. ↑ Lenta.ru, Dossier on the police scandal in Blagoveschensk ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ "Муртаза Рахимов ушел в отставку" ; lenta.ru, July 15, 2010
4. ↑ NEWSru.com : СМИ: для "мирной" смены власти в Башкирию направлены отряды специального назначения
5. ^ Open letter from Grigori Jawlinski to President Yeltsin , June 18, 1998
6. ↑ ^{a b} Entry in Lentapedia
7. ↑ Moskovsky Komsomolets, June 4, 2009
8. ^ Radio Swoboda, June 8, 2009

Web links

Commons : Mortasa Rachimow  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Detailed biography of Rakhimov in the Lentapedia (Russian)
• Biography on the website of the RIA Novosti news agency (in Russian)
• Who is who in Bashkortostan: Mortasa Rachimow (Russian)
• Entry on the website of the Bashkir State University of Ufa (Russian)