Mr. Yevkurov’s driver died in the explosion, and there were conflicting reports about whether one or more of his bodyguards died. His brother was said to have been wounded.  There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing, officials said. Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, appeared on national television and declared that the attack was evidence that Mr. Yevkurov’s policies were winning over the local population and beating back militants.  “The president of Ingushetia has done a lot of late to strengthen law and order and build up civil peace in the republic,” Mr. Medvedev said. “Of course, the bandits do not welcome these efforts, and what has happened is their response to the Ingushetia authorities’ work and greater activity in these areas.”  Two weeks ago, Mr. Medvedev visited Dagestan after its interior minister was assassinated. He attributed violence in the region to foreign extremists, calling them “freaks who come to our country for the sole purpose of causing damage to it.”  A day later, a senior judge in Ingushetia was assassinated. Soon after, a former deputy prime minister of Ingushetia was gunned down.  The explosion on Monday that wounded Mr. Yevkurov was so powerful that it crushed his car and damaged nearby houses.  “I thought that it was my gas stove that blew up,” a woman told state television. “My daughter fell down. I saw the roof tumbling down. I saw the fence toppling over, windows falling out and everything burning.”  Mr. Yevkurov, 45, a former Russian military intelligence officer, was appointed last fall by Mr. Medvedev after unrest in Ingushetia had escalated under the previous leader, Murat Zyazikov. Some officials in Moscow expressed fears that Ingushetia was on its way to succumbing to the kind of hostilities that once stirred Chechnya.  Seeking to build public trust, Mr. Yevkurov has ruled with far more restraint than his predecessor, who was widely reviled and accused of being dictatorial and corrupt. Mr. Yevkurov has met regularly with opposition politicians and leaders of advocacy groups, and even publicized what he said was his personal cellphone number, to solicit complaints from citizens.  He has tried to live modestly, disdaining the lavish presidential residence and other perks that typically accrue to leaders in the region, who have a reputation for corruption.  Human rights advocates, who had harshly criticized his predecessor, have praised him.  “He attempted to show, and prove, that the authorities are seeking to protect society from the terrorist threat,” said Aleksandr Cherkasov, an expert on the Caucasus at Memorial, one of Russia’s premier human rights organizations.  “It was not only his words,” Mr. Cherkasov said. “It has been done through significant actions. His policies have offered hope that the situation can be improved. Because of that, he has been dangerous to the separatist underground.”  Even as the Kremlin has embraced Mr. Yevkurov’s style in Ingushetia, it has supported a more hard-line one in Chechnya.  The strongman there, President Ramzan A. Kadyrov, has succeeded to some extent in pacifying Chechnya and rebuilding the capital, Grozny. But human rights groups have called his tactics brutal, saying he has employed torture and extrajudicial killings.  In April, the Kremlin formally declared the end of military operations in Chechnya, portraying the move as evidence of the success of its strategy there. But the violence has not completely ended.  On Monday, after meeting with security officials, Mr. Medvedev met with Mr. Kadyrov and reiterated his backing for Mr. Kadyrov’s work.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: President of Ingushetia Is Wounded in Suicide Bombing. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
The leader of an unstable republic near Chechnya was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt Monday morning, officials said.