Yevkurov Seen Overseeing Integration of North Caucasians into Russian Military

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 10 – Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the former head of Ingushetia, has now been appointed a deputy defense minister, a move his supporters say shows that Moscow approved of what he did there (iarex.ru/news/67590.html) and one where his undoubted military talents will be used to improve the integration of North Caucasians into the Russian military.

            Aleksandr Perendzhiyev, a military analyst with the Union of Officers of Russia, says that Yevkurov will be able to do so because of the great authority he enjoys among troops from that region.  He will work to ensure that they “obey orders and fulfill their military tasks” (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/337671/ and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/337596/).

            Meanwhile, details have now become available about why a scheduled hearing in the Popular Assembly on July 4 about actions needed to implement the Ingush-Chechen border agreement did not take place. According too the parliament’s website, officials who had been called did not show up (parlamentri.ru/index.php/press-centr/novosti/4693-rukovoditeli-ryada-ministerstv-i-munitsipalnykh-obrazovanij-sorvali-provedenie-rasshirennogo-zasedaniya-komiteta-ns-ri and zamanho.com/?p=10362).

            It remains unclear whether this means that the new administration in Manas wants to go ahead with the deal or whether it simply doesn’t want it discussed at present. 

            Meanwhile, over the last 24 hours, there were two other Ingush developments. Cases against Ingush opposition figures continue to wend through the courts with the defendants losing in almost all of them (zamanho.com/?p=10398, zamanho.com/?p=10353,  zamanho.com/?p=10328, kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/337669/, kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/337649/ and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/337623/).

            And Moscow media attention continues to focus on the tragic case of a young Ingush girl who was tortured certainly by her relatives in the past and possibly by the Ingush siloviki more recently (mk.ru/social/2019/07/10/vrachi-o-sostoyanii-iskalechennoy-devochki-iz-ingushetii-amputacii-ne-izbezhat.html, novayagazeta.ru/articles/2019/07/09/81176-adat-ne-dyshlo and erdune.com/post/734-fleshmob-sag1-ili-ponty).