Said Amirov

Said Dzhaparovich Amirov (Russian: Саи́д Джапа́рович Ами́ров, born 5 March 1954) is a Dagestani economist and politician for United Russia who has been mayor of Makhachkala since 1998. He was detained in June 2013 on suspicion of having ordered the murder of state investigator Arsen Gadzhibeko in 2011. Amirov was suspended from his position as mayor of Makhachkala on 14 June 2013 by the Basmanny Court of Moscow which has also ruled that Amirov can be kept in custody to November 2013.

Said Amirov was born in the village Dzhanga-Makhi in central Dagestan, an area from which many leading politicians in Dagestan hail. He is an ethnic Dargin.

Amirov obtained a degree in economics at the All-Union Institute of the Food Industry in 1983, and a Candidate degree in economics from the St. Petersburg Engineering and Economics Institute in 1992. In 2006, he obtained a doctorate degree. He teaches at Dagestan’s State University, and is a member of the Academy of Social and Humanitarian Sciences, and the Russian Municipal Academy.

From 1971 to 1991, Amirov worked in various positions for consumers' cooperatives, ultimately becoming chairman of the consumers' union Dagpotrebsoyuz.

He was deputy Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Dagestan from 1991 to 1998, and is also the founder of the Dagestani People's Reform Party. In 1998, he was elected mayor of Makhachkala with more than 70% of the vote, and has subsequently been reelected.

Makhachkala has experienced substantial population growth and economic progress during Amirov's mayoral period. He has twice been voted Russia's best mayor. He has at the same time been accused of being part of widespread corruption.

Amirov has been the victim of several assassination attempts—15, according to many sources—and has used a wheelchair since his spine was hit by a bullet in 1993. In 1998, a bomb went off at his father's gravesite. Amirov used to visit the grave daily, but was not present when the bomb went off. One person was wounded. On 4 September 1998, explosives went off near his house, killing 20 people in the neighbourhood, and injuring eight more. Two relatives of Sharaputdin Musaev, chairman of Dagestan's Pension Fund, were later found guilty of the attack.

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