Violence in Dagestan today is mainly caused by jihadi
fighters, not inter-ethnic tensions. Although competi-
tion for land and political appointments often follows
ethnic lines, the republic’s ethnic complexity has neu-
tralised tensions by encouraging allegiances between
groups and has prevented the emergence of a dominant
one. Conflict between Avars and Dargins, neverthe-
less, remains a possibility,
especially after an Avar,
Mukhu Aliyev, became president. Electoral reforms
in 2006 sought to “de-ethnicise” politics by ending
ethnic electoral districts an
d introducing a general vot-
ing list. They were put to the test in the March 2007
parliamentary elections and appeared to be a relative
success: the elections were less an inter-ethnic com-
petition then a personal duel
between Aliyev and Said
Amirov, a Dargin, for political and economic power.