An official in Russia's Tatarstan region has been transferred to a top post in the North Caucasus, the second such move this month.
Government officials in Karachayevo-Cherkesia said on February 19 that Enver Arpatly, who was deputy chief of Tatarstan's Pestretsy district, was appointed as deputy prime minister Karachai-Cherkessia on February 16.
Arpatly, an Uzbekistan-born Crimean Tatar, is a former deputy mayor of the Crimean city of Alushta but left the post a year after Russian seized Crimea from Ukraine and started the job in Tatarstan in 2017.
Arpatly's new appointment came after Artyom Zdunov, who had been economy minister in Tatarstan, was appointed prime minister of Daghestan on February 7.
His appointment came two days after several senior government officials in Daghestan were detained on suspicion of misusing funds from Russia’s federal budget that were meant for social programs.
The officials included acting Prime Minister Abdusamad Gamidov and acting Deputy Prime Ministers Shamil Isayev and Rayudin Yusufov.
The acting head of Daghestan, Vladimir Vasilyev, dismissed Gamidov, Isayev, and Yusufov on February 6.
Vasilyev headed the ruling United Russia party's faction in the State Duma before he was appointed by President Vladimir Putin in October as the acting head of Daghestan.
The North Caucasus region in recent years has been at the epicenter of organized criminal gang violence linked to business turf wars, political disputes, clan rivalries, and the spread of militant Islam.
