KISLOVODS, Russia - Alexander Khloponin may be Russia's biggest optimist.

The most senior official in charge of the violence-plagued North Caucasus, he largely dismisses Islamists' fight for a sharia-based state as a cause of violence in the region and says alcoholism and fires in Siberia kill more people.

"This is just the redistribution of property, just criminals," Khloponin, deputy prime minister and former governor of Krasnoyarsk region, said in the spa town of Kislovodsk in the Caucasus foothills as he laid out plans to build ski resorts, ports and refineries in a region famous for its dramatic mountains.