THE Kremlin would have Russians (and the rest of the world) believe that the situation in the Caucasus is under control. That is evidently not the case. Yesterday’s attempted assassination of the president of Ingushetia, Yunusbek Yevkurov, is the third high-profile attack in the autonomous republic in as many weeks and the fifth in the region in just over a month. On June 10, one of the Ingushetia’s top judges died after the vehicle she was traveling in was attacked by gunmen. Three days later, a former deputy premier, Bashir Aushev, was murdered, again while traveling in his car.

It is unclear who is responsible for these killings; indeed it is far from certain that they are connected. Yet already Muslim militants are being blamed. Unfortunately, that is a typical knee-jerk reaction in the Caucasus where devout Muslims, particularly the young, are regularly targeted by the police and accused, simply because they are practicing Muslims, of being terrorists. It is an extremely foolish policy. It is only going to alienate young Muslims from the political system and push them into the welcoming arms of the militants — who certainly exist.

They may well be responsible for yesterday’s attempt. It bears all the hallmarks of an extremist attack. The president’s car was reportedly rammed by another vehicle driven by a suicide bomber. Yevkurov is lucky to be alive; his brother and two other security guards were killed. On the other hand, the other two assassinations were different. They did not involve suicide bombers. Both victims were murdered while traveling in vehicles by gunmen who escaped.

The reality, however, is that although there are militants in Ingushetia — they are part and parcel of the defeated insurgent movement in neighboring Chechnya (until 1991, the two formed one autonomous state) — it has other problems that are just as likely to be the cause of the violence, most notably corruption and organized crime.

It was to tackle corruption, crime and the insurgency that President Dmitry Medvedev appointed Yevkurov, a former paratroop commander who saw service in Chechnya, as president of Ingushetia last October, replacing the incompetent, corrupt and much despised Murat Zyazikov. He has made strides in fighting corruption and tackling the economic mess he found and it is difficult not to believe that he did not make enemies in doing so, as did the murdered judge, in much the same way that the Mexican and Colombian authorities have made enemies in their wars against drugs and organized crime. As in those two countries, there are people in Ingushetia who are not afraid to strike at the heart of the state to keep things as they are.

Moscow is bound to feel that it has to show who is master in Ingushetia. It may well be tempted to go for the iron-fist-in-an-iron-glove approach, cracking down hard on any suspected militants in the territory. That is Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s favored style. But it is regeneration not repression that will bring peace to Ingushetia. It is one of the poorest places in Russia and it is impossible not to see that as the chief reason why it is also one of the most violent. Tackle that root cause and the alienation that has led some into extremism will recede.

Enough is enough

Crime, and especially petty crime, will not simply go away if it is ignored, said The Times in an editorial yesterday. Excerpts:

Few issues are as emotive, insidious and politically intractable in Britain as the contention that the country is going to the dogs. For the millions assaulted by daily instances of anti-social behavior — rowdiness, public drunkenness, littering, drug dealing, vandalism and intimidation by youth gangs — the government’s failure to enforce social discipline and stamp out yobbish behavior is proof that politicians today are incapable of halting the country’s downward slide. However the latest statistics are presented to prove that crime is falling, few will be reassured as long as people’s lives are blighted by antisocial behavior.

Tony Blair understood this. Since Brown came to office, the campaign against anti-social behavior has been allowed to lapse. Responsibility was split between the Home Office and the Department of Children, Education and Schools, and ASBOs, as well as other initiatives to stamp out social indiscipline, fell into the crevasses separating two rival and poorly coordinated departments. Tackling crime is not an issue with which Brown feels philosophically comfortable or one that he believes should be a flagship policy for new Labour. In his two years as prime minister, he has made just one speech on crime. His attitude has been that talking about crime and anti-social behavior only encourages a climate of fear and the best way to tackle it is by increasing opportunity. This may be well intentioned. Politically, it is disastrous. Little wonder that many former Labour voters have turned in large numbers to fringe groups and extremist politicians who promise a return to order, discipline and old-fashioned values. Little wonder that many are attracted by the simplistic message of the BNP.

Alan Johnson understands this well. The new home secretary, in a candid interview, admitted that the government had been “coasting” on the issue in recent years. Announcing a new website where people can see who is responsible for dealing with this menace, he made clear that anti-social behavior — which disproportionately affects the poor — is back on the Home Office agenda. It is high time. Enough is enough.