Kadyrov's possible appointment as "Caucasus Boss" is at issue in Russia and Chechnya

Russian media and Chechen society believe that President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov will be appointed to the news post of high official in charge of the situation in the whole Northern Caucasus.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said, when addressing the Federal Assembly on November 12, about the need to introduce a federal-level official in charge of the republics of the Northern Caucasus.

According to Arkadiy Dvorkovich, Russian President's assistant, it can be a member of the government vested with sufficient power to instruct ministers and heads of various power bodies, and having sufficient status in relations with governors and presidents of the subjects located in the South Federal District (SFD). According to Mr Dvorkovich, the decision about the rank of such official has not been made yet.

At the same time, as Vladimir Varfolomeyev, deputy editor-in-chief of the "Echo Moskvy" Radio, wrote in his blog, the post of the "supervisor" will be taken by the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov; and this issue is almost fully coordinated with the Kremlin.

According to his story, "one formal issue only, however, quite a crucial one, is still unsettled: whether Ramzan Kadyrov, after taking the post of the federal vice-premier, will remain the Chechen President."

In the opinion of local observers, the facts in support of Kadyrov's appointment are the awarding him the rank of militia general and transfer of the control over subdivisions of Combined Forces to the operative headquarters in Chechnya.

"The Kremlin's idea to fix the new post of the official to be personally responsible for the North Caucasian region, while there's President's plenipotentiary for the SFD, is not quite clear. It looks somewhat as parallel bodies of power and management. Anyway, I believe Ramzan Kadyrov is candidate No. 1 to the post," one of Chechen political scientists said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In the opinion of another local observer, the statements that appeared in media that leaders of the regions in Northern Caucasus would not obey a native of one of them are not quite correct.

"Naturally, appointment, say, of Kadyrov to be 'primus inter pares' won't please other leaders. But it doesn't at all means that they won't obey," the source of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was convinced.

However, he did not exclude that Kadyrov's transfer to the new post will not mean any strengthening of his influence.

"With account of unpredictability of Russian authorities, we can't exclude that they just want to remove Kadyrov from Chechnya, deprive him of force support and then - dismiss completely. The fact that Ramzan Kadyrov was Putin's favourite is no evidence that Medvedev also likes him," said the source.

Yunus-Bek Evkurov, President of Ingushetia, next to Chechnya, was also "nominated" by media to the post of "Caucasian supervisor", the Agency of National News writes.

Mr Evkurov believes that the official in charge of Northern Caucasus should be "a neutral figure." "This should be a neutral person - in no way from the Caucasus," he is sure.

Other candidates to the post are Vice-Premier Dmitri Kozak, deputy head of the Russia Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) Arkadiy Edelev, former "Russneft" boss Mikhail Gutseriev and a businessman from Dagestan Suleiman Kerimov.