West has Been Funding Ingush Protests, Russian Security Services Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 5 – In a development that is surprising only because it did not happen sooner, sources in Russia’s security services say that the West has been funding the protests in Ingushetia against the September 26 border agreement between Ingushetia’s Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov.

            The Nezygar Telegram Channel says that its sources say that the protests in Ingushetia along with those in Primorsky kray have “a common source of financing,” money coming through bank accounts in Tatarstan (t.me/russica2/12019). The Russian nationalist Rex news agency says this shows that the protests have been “paid by the West” (iarex.ru/news/62335.html).

            The accounts in Tatarstan are linked to Latvia’s Norvik Bank,” the Red news agency says; and Russian security services are now investigating how the money flowed and where it originated. But the agency suggests there is no question that it came from the West and that the West is behind the protests.

            Meanwhile, there were two other reports over the last 24 hours concerning the dispute over the Ingush-Chechen border:

            In the first, Caucasus Times reports that Kadyrov’s suggestion that the land Yevkurov agreed to transfer to Chechnya is Chechen land and will remain so regardless of any court decision has led Ingush and Chechens to trade charges not only about that but to attack each other on a wide variety of issues (caucasustimes.com/ru/ramzanu-vidnee/).

                And in the second, Kavkaz-Uzel surveyed the opinion of specialists on the Caucasus about the possible impact of the latest decision of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD) of Ingushetia to oppose the border accord. They say it will have little impact because the MSD has been against the agreement since the start of the controversy (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328744/).