RUSSIA'S TINDERBOX - Belfer Center for Science and International ...

1991 the referendum on statehood was held in the Balkar districts of the republic. Of those who took
part (80.5% of registered Balkar voters) 95% voted in favor of a separate Balkar republic.
In response to the referendum, a rival Kabardinian Congress, supported by the President of
the KNK, Yuri Shanibov (an ethnic Kabardinian), was immediately called. The Kabardinian
Congress brought together the ethnic group’s national movement and official government
representatives from the republic who were opposed to the Balkar démarche. A Kabardinian
republic was proposed with the Congress of the Kabardinian People as its executive organ. This left
the republic’s two constituent groups in a tense stand-off. In January 1992, the Kabardinians
declared the creation of a separate Kabardinian republic within the framework of the Russian
Federation and announced that the border with the Balkar republic would follow a frontier laid down
in an agreement between the Kabardinians of the lowlands and the Balkar mountain tribes in 1863.
This proposed frontier effectively reduced the pre-1944 territory of the Balkars two-fold.
In spring 1992, relations between the two groups deteriorated to their lowest point with the
repeated convening of competing congresses and increasingly inflammatory demands and counterdemands.
The central government of the republic made no effort to intervene until armed clashes
erupted between Kabardinians and Balkars in the predominantly Kabardinian Sovetsky district of
the republic, prompting Balkars living in the district to resettle in adjacent Balkar districts. After
these clashes, the parliament of Kabardino-Balkaria attempted to impose a moratorium on the
holding of congresses, but this was ignored and the Kabardinian and Balkar national movements
continued to squabble over the validity of the 1863 frontiers as opposed to those of 1944.
In September 1992, the arrest of KNK President Yuri Shanibov, who was urging KNK
volunteers to intervene in the war in Abkhazia, was the spur to a violent upheaval in Kabardino-
Balkaria that threatened to plunge the republic into civil war. In the wake of Shanibov’s arrest, the
Congress of the Kabardinian People and Adyge-Khase organized a series of protests that resulted in
clashes with the local OMON which was deployed by President Valery Kokov to restore order.
Casualties in these clashes galvanized the demonstrators to demand that the OMON be withdrawn in
addition to the appeal for Shanibov’s release. To defuse the situation, the authorities allowed
Shanibov to ‘escape’ during transfer to a detention center in Rostov-on-Don. The demonstrations
intensified, however, with attempts to storm government buildings, demands that Kokov’s
government resign, and calls for a coalition government led by the Kabardinian Congress.
The ascent of the Kabardinian Congress to power as a result of these demonstrations would
have immediately provoked protests by the Balkars and propelled the republic towards division.
Counter-demonstrations thus ensued in support of Kokov and the preservation of a unitary
Kabardino-Balkaria. A state of emergency was declared and Russian marines were deployed on the
streets of the capital, Nal’chik.
In October, as full-scale conflict broke out in neighboring North Ossetia, the Kabardinian-
Balkarian leadership agreed on major concessions to placate the radical Kabardinian opposition. The
OMON forces were withdrawn and the Kabardinian Congress was allowed to express its views on
TV without fear of political reprisal. These concessions were sufficient to de-escalate what had been
12 days of civil unrest.
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