Rioting after murders problem for the Kremlin

• Cherkessk crisis has put the Kremlin in front of a difficult choice -- to back Batdyyev and possibly fuel further violence or to agree to his resignation

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MOSCOW - Reuters

Russian authorities on Wednesday vowed to punish the organizers of riots in a southern province that have highlighted the risks of President Vladimir Putin's planned shake-up in the regions.

The small, mainly Muslim Karachayevo-Cherkessia region has been hit by protests since the disappearance last month of seven businessmen in which the regional leader Mustafa Batdyyev's son-in-law is a prime suspect.

The discovery of their bodies in a mineshaft sparked fresh riots on Tuesday when protesters stormed into government headquarters in the regional capital Cherkessk and demanded Batdyyev quit. Dozens were still occupying Batdyyev's office on Wednesday, media said.

"We understand the grief of relatives of the murdered, but no one is allowed to resort to riots," Interfax news agency quoted deputy prosecutor general, Nikolai Shepel, as saying.

Police were working to identify people behind the attack, in which up to 13 people were injured, Shepel said.

Batdyyev's son-in-law Ali Kaitov is detained on suspicion of the businessmen's murders.

The unrest comes at a sensitive moment for Putin who is seeking to win over the regions to his proposal to name regional governors and leaders himself -- rather than have them elected locally -- in the interests of political stability.

Batdyyev, who has refused to step down, is one of several regional leaders in the turbulent Caucasus who is in power thanks to the Kremlin's backing.

Appointing leaders

And the Cherkessk drama now raises a question over Putin's further plans to take on himself the responsibility of appointing regional leaders.

Under the Kremlin plan, already initially approved by the loyal parliament, gubernatorial polls would be scrapped and Putin would have a formal right to nominate regional leaders.

Skeptics say that such a system could prove explosive in the turbulent South, where a fragile balance among ethnic groups and clans traditionally matters more than a formal law.

Kremlin-imposed leaders in two other southern regions -- Ingushetia and North Ossetia -- faced public criticism over the hostage-taking at a school in Beslan in September which ended with more than 300 people, half of them children, being killed.

The Cherkessk crisis has put the Kremlin in front of a difficult choice -- to back Batdyyev and possibly fuel further violence or to agree to his resignation, sending a dangerous signal to other southern regions.

"If the Kremlin surrenders Batdyyev, people can throw away (Ingushetia's) Murat Zyazikov and (North Ossetia's) Alexander Dzasokhov," daily newspaper Gazeta wrote.

However, some commentators say the Cherkessk standoff could give Putin an extra argument to scrap gubernatorial elections, which his camp says had failed to bring quality people to power.

"Putin has got a trump card -- a real example of how local bosses pass out of the control of the people who elected them and are now left to express their protest through rampaging and looting," Anton Orekh, a commentator for Ekho Moskvy Radio said.