Yevkurov Dismisses Ingush Calls for His Resignation, Says Only Putin Can Remove Him

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 22 – Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the head of Ingushetia, dismisses the calls by the Ingush opponents of his border accord with Chechnya that he resign. He says only Putin can fire him, a position that will only intensify the view in Ingushetia that he is not their leader but Moscow’s agent in place (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/329512/).

            Yevkurov’s hard line position in this regard may play well in Moscow, but it will further erode his position and that of the central Russian government in Ingushetia, especially because of two recent Russian actions that have riled people there, one of which even Yevkurov has been forced to try to explain and defend.

            In the first, the Ingush head has had to explain that during a counter-terrorist operation in Nazran on December 12, Russian forces killed a completely innocent Ingush, an action he attempted to explain but that many Ingush view as yet another attack on their republic and nation (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/329519/,  interfax-russia.ru/South/news.asp?sec=1672&id=993056  and newsru.com/russia/22dec2018/hashagul.html).

            And in the second, which the Ingush head has not yet weighed in on, Moscow police raided a dormitory in Moscow on December 19 and detained more than 100 students from the North Caucasus, including numerous Ingush ones.  Lawyers have now pointed out that the Russian authorities violated their own laws in this action (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/329500/).