On September 12, Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing the former head of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, as the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Cyprus. His predecessor Stanislav Osadchenko was ambassador to Cyprus for 9 years.
FSB Lieutenant General, Doctor of Philosophy (as follows from his official biography) Murat Zyazikov led Ingushetia from 2002 to 2008. The first time he came to power was through popular elections. The media, the opposition and human rights activists reported numerous violations at polling stations: mass stuffing, falsification, intervention by security forces who did not allow some voters to vote. As a result of all this, Zyazikov, having lost in the first round, won in the second by a significant margin. A second term as president of Ingushetia was secured for him in 2005 by the People's Assembly of the republic on the proposal of President Putin.
In 2004, terrorists who seized a school in Beslan summoned several local government officials to negotiations. Murat Zyazikov, who appeared on their list, was the only one who did not arrive in Beslan. Former President of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev, recalling these tragic events, said: “I don’t know [why Dzasokhov and Zyazikov did not go to the seized school]. Dzasokhov told me that he was forbidden to enter. And Zyazikov disappeared. In a word, a coward."
The aggravation of the situation in Ingushetia, which in 2008 almost escalated into a civil war, is associated with Zyazikov’s policies. “I am very concerned about the situation with the rights of people in Ingushetia. Murders and kidnappings of people by government officials have become systemic in the republic,” said human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseeva. Under the guise of fighting the “Wahhabi underground,” security forces killed moderate Salafis, members of the opposition, and personal enemies, provoking a response. In April 2004, there was the first attempt on Zyazikov’s life.
The culmination was the murder of opposition politician, creator of the website “Ingushetia.ru” Magomed Yevloev on August 31, 2008. He was detained at Magas airport, where he arrived on the same plane as Murat Zyazikov. The president's security guards put Yevloev in the car of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic, Musa Medov, where, according to investigators, he “received a fatal head wound as a result of an involuntary shot from a pistol from one of the guards.”
After this, then-President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed Murat Zyazikov.
In 2008-2012, Zyazikov served as Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation on Cossack issues, then took the position of Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President in the Central Federal District.