MAGAS, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday signed a decree reinstating Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who survived an assassination attempt in June and was discharged from a Moscow hospital this week.
While Yevkurov was receiving medical treatment in Moscow, Rashid Gaisanov, was appointed acting president of the Russian southern republic of Ingushetia.
Yevkurov underwent a series of operations in Moscow after sustaining head and internal injuries when a car bomb exploded as his motorcade passed by on June 22.
Though Yevkurov has resumed his post, he is expected to return to the North Caucasus republic by the end of August.
"I can't name the exact date because it hasn't yet been determined. We expect [Yevkurov] back in Ingushetia by the end of this month," Ingush presidential secretary Kaloi Akhilgov told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
The secretary also said that a large meeting is due to be held with city and regional heads when Yevkurov returns to give him an opportunity to get up to speed with the current situation in the republic.
"On arrival in the republic, I will hold an extended governmental session to receive reports on how work has progressed," Yevkurov told government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Tuesday.
Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus regions have seen a rise in violence in recent months. Attacks on police, officials and troops have been reported almost daily in Ingushetia and Dagestan that border Chechnya, which saw two separatist wars in the late 1990s-early 2000s.
A group led by notorious Chechen warlord Doku Umarov has claimed responsibility for the bombing, which also killed two people accompanying the president. Umarov is a former underground president of Chechnya and now the self-proclaimed leader of the North Caucasus, or the "Caucasus emirate."
A series of high-profile killings in Ingushetia and Dagestan followed the attack on Yevkurov.
Ingushetia's forensics chief died in July in a shooting, and the republic's Supreme Court judge and Dagestan's interior minister were assassinated in June. And more recently in a daring daylight attack the Ingush construction minister was gunned down in his office on Wednesday.
In neighboring Chechnya, a number of attacks have been carried out against human rights activists, which have been condemned by the international community and Dmitry Medvedev.
Respected human rights activist, Natalya Estemirova, was abducted and killed last month. And in a similar attack Zarema Sadulayeva, the head of a children's charity in Chechnya, and her husband, Alik Dzhabrailov, were kidnapped on Monday and found dead in the trunk of their car Tuesday. All three had been shot in the head and chest.
