View source for Ruslan Aushev

{{Short description|Soviet-Russian Ingush lieutenant general and politician}}

{{Other uses|Aushev (disambiguation)}}
{{Family name hatnote|Sultanovich|Aushev|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Ruslan Aushev
| native_name         = {{Nobold|{{lang|ru|Руслан Аушев}}<br/>{{lang|inh|Овшанаькъан Руслан}}}}
| image               = AushevR.jpg
| imagesize           = 200px
| caption             = Aushev in 2008
| office              = [[Federation Council (Russia)|Russian Federation Senator]]<br />from the [[Republic of Ingushetia]]
| term_start          = 10 January 2002
| term_end            = 23 April 2002
| predecessor         = ''Seat established''
| successor           = [[Issa Kostoyev]]
| order1              = 1st [[President of Ingushetia]]
| term_start1         = 18 February 1993
| term_end1           = 28 April 2002
| predecessor1        = ''Position established''
| successor1          = [[Murat Zyazikov]]
| birth_date          = {{Birth date and age|1954|10|29|df=yes}}
| birth_place         = Volodarskoe village, [[Kazakh SSR]], [[Soviet Union]] (now Kazakhstan)
| profession          = [[Soldier]] and [[politician]]
| spouse              = Aza Bamatgirovna Ausheva
| children            = 4
| party               = [[Independent politician|Independent]]
| allegiance          = Soviet Union
| branch              = [[Soviet Army]]
| serviceyears        = 1971–?
| rank                = [[Lieutenant general]]
| battles             = [[Soviet–Afghan War]]
| mawards             = [[Hero of the Soviet Union]]
| module              = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Ruslan Aushev voice.oga|title=Ruslan Aushev's voice|type=speech|description=Aushev discussing agreements signed between the governments of Ingushetia and Russia<br/>Recorded 1 April 2013}}
}}
'''Ruslan Sultanovich Aushev'''{{efn|{{langx|ru|Русла́н Султа́нович А́ушев}}; {{langx|inh|Овшанаькъан Солта Руслан|Ovshanäqhan Solta Ruslan}}}} (born 29 October 1954) is a Russian Ingush former politician. He was the [[President of Ingushetia]] from March 1993 to December 2001. He was reportedly the youngest officer in the [[Soviet Army]] to reach the rank of [[lieutenant general]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=M9iwFmvKTwcC&q=intitle:Dust+intitle:Empire&pg=PA168 Books.google.com]</ref> He was awarded the title [[Hero of the Soviet Union]] on 7 May 1982 for his actions in Afghanistan. Aushev emerged{{when?|date=June 2025}} as [[Ingushetia]]'s most popular politician, having kept peace and stability during the [[First Chechen War]].

== Early life ==
Aushev was born on 29 October 1954 to an [[Ingush people|Ingush]] family living in [[Kazakhstan]], who were deported from the [[Russian SFSR]] in 1944. Very little is known about Aushev's early life.

== Military service ==
Aushev entered the Soviet military in 1971 and graduated from the Ordzhonikidze Higher Combined-Arms Command School in 1975, after which he served in the North Caucasus Military District, where he rose to the position of chief of staff of a motorized rifle battalion before he was deployed to Afghanistan in 1980. There he commanded a motorized rifle battalion of the 180th Motorized Rifle Regiment as part of a limited contingent of Soviet troops in the country. After successfully leading his battalion through a dangerous engagement with rebels who tried to ambush them, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin on 7 May 1982. After his first deployment to Afghanistan he attended the [[M. V. Frunze Military Academy]] which he graduated from 1985 before he returned to Afghanistan as a Major. On 16 October 1986 he suffered serious injuries in the [[Salang Pass]], but eventually returned to service. From 1989 to 1991 he studied at the [[Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia|Military Academy of the General Staff]] and graduated with honors. He was promoted to the rank of Major General in 1991 and to the rank of Lieutenant General in 1997.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=1989|script-title=ru:Аушев Руслан Султанович|last=Smirnov|first=Vitaly|website=warheroes.ru|language=ru|access-date=2019-04-13}}</ref>

== Political career ==
Later he ascended to the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]], where he remained for two years while serving on the Military Affairs Committee. In November 1992 Aushev was appointed to lead the provisional administration in Ingushetia, a position he resigned two months later to run in the [[1993 Ingushetian presidential election|Ingushetian presidential elections]]. Being the sole candidate, he won the presidency on 28 February 1993 with 99.99% of the vote,<ref>[http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/personer.exe?546 Persons – NUPI<!-- Bot generated title -->] NUPI</ref> and he was re-elected five years later.

During the [[First Chechen War]] as many as 200,000 refugees from [[Chechnya]] and neighboring [[North Ossetia]] strained Ingushetia's already weak economy and on several occasions, Aushev protested incursions by Russian soldiers, and even threatened to sue the Russian [[Ministry of Defence (Russia)|Ministry of Defence]] for damages inflicted. President Aushev said that his people could not forget how the same Russian armored columns "and the same Defense Minister" ([[Pavel Grachev]]) assisted in the destruction of Ingush settlements and the [[Population transfer|expulsion]] of Ingush population during the [[Ingush-Ossetian conflict|1992 ethnic conflict in North Ossetia]].<ref>[http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/ARCHIVE/2.94.html Archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160608021010/http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/ARCHIVE/2.94.html |date=8 June 2016 }} INFO RUSS</ref>

He resigned in December 2001 and on 23 May 2002, [[Murat Zyazikov]] was elected president of Ingushetia under controversial circumstances. Since then the republic has become more violent.

Then Aushev was elected to the [[Federation Council of Russia]], the [[upper house]] of the [[Federal Assembly (Russia)|Russian Parliament]] in December 1993, a position he resigned from is April 2003. Aushev served as a [[negotiation|negotiator]] on the second day of the [[Beslan school hostage crisis]], convincing the hostage-takers to release 26 nursing women and their infants.

On 30 September 2008, Aushev commented, in his interview to [[Echo of Moscow]] radio station, on the [[War in Ingushetia|increasingly tense situation]] in Ingushetia, accusing the current authorities of excessive use of force in the republic, leading to the radicalization of the society and threatening to plunge Ingushetia into civil war. The opposition news website [[Ingushetia.org]] reported that the Ingush president Murat Zyazikov ordered the republic's television and radio broadcasting center to block Echo of Moscow's signal for the duration of Aushev's appearance.<ref>[http://www.theotherrussia.org/2008/09/30/ingushetia-descending-into-civil-war-aushev/ Ingushetia Descending into Civil War – Aushev]. [[The Other Russia (coalition)|The Other Russia]] website. 30 September 2008.</ref>

== Personal life ==
Aushev is married to Aza Ausheva,<ref>[http://news.mail.ru/inregions/volgaregion/16/politics/17357501/?frommail=1 Ильсур Метшин награждён памятной медалью «25 лет вывода войск из Афганистана»]</ref> and has two sons, Ali and Umar, and two daughters, Leila and Lema. Ruslan also had a brother who is unidentified (classified).

== Honours and awards ==
* [[Hero of the Soviet Union]]
*[[Order of Lenin]]
* Two [[Order of the Red Star|Orders of the Red Star]]
* [[Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR]] 3rd class
* [[Medal "For Distinction in Military Service"]] 1st class
* [[Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"]]
* [[Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"]]
* [[Medal "For Impeccable Service"|Medals "For Impeccable Service"]] 2nd and 3rd classes

==See also==
{{Portal|Russia|Biography|Politics}}
* [[War Veterans Committee]]
* [[Warriors-Internationalists Affairs Committee]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Ruslan Aushev}}
*{{in lang|ru}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20110925235648/http://aushev.ru/ The first president of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev's website].
*{{in lang|ru}} [http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=1989 Biography]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040930011953/http://www.rferl.org/specials/russianelection/bio/aushev.asp Ruslan Aushev: Russia's Champion At Getting Out The Vote by Laura Belin], [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]].
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051118150626/http://www.grankin.ru/dosye/ru_bio79.htm Computer translation] of the Aushev's bio at grankin.ru.
* ''[https://archive.today/20121217183940/http://www.sho.com/site/threedaysinseptember/home.do Three Days in September]'' (2006). Directed by [[Joe Halderman]], narrated by [[Julia Roberts]]. [http://imdb.com/title/tt0800238/fullcredits Full Credits]

{{Heads of the Republic of Ingushetia}}
{{Beslan school siege}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aushev, Ruslan}}
[[Category:1954 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from North Kazakhstan Region]]
[[Category:Ingush people]]
[[Category:Heads of Ingushetia]]
[[Category:Members of the Federation Council of Russia (1994–1996)]]
[[Category:Members of the Federation Council of Russia (1996–2000)]]
[[Category:Russian lieutenant generals]]
[[Category:Soviet lieutenant generals]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of the Soviet–Afghan War]]
[[Category:Moscow theater hostage crisis]]
[[Category:Beslan school siege]]
[[Category:Heroes of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Frunze Military Academy alumni]]
[[Category:Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the Federation Council of Russia (after 2000)]]