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Karachay-Cherkessia profile
Head of government: Rashid Temrezov
Boris Ebzeyev stepped down as president of the republic in February 2011, complaining that the government was unable to cope with the task of improving living conditions. His administration had also been plagued by violence, which many local observers attributed to clan-based acrimony involving supporters of Mr Ebzeyev's predecessor, Mustafa Batdyyev.
The Russian president nominated Rashid Temerzov, a local MP born in 1976 and a member of Russia's governing United Russia party, as Mr Ebzeyev's successor. Mr Temerzov had worked in the republic's financial and constructions institutions along with pursuing a political career, and local civil-rights groups have portrayed him as being close to the Batdyyev camp.
In April 2011 he assumed the title of "head" rather than president of the republic, in a move to reorganise government structures.
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