Kalimatov Finally But Quietly Signals Interest in Ingush Detainees

Paul Goble

            Staunton, October 27 – One of the greatest complaints among Ingush opposition groups is that the new republic head, Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov, has not discussed the status of the 29 protesters still in detention and facing trials for their roles in the March 26-27 demonstrations about the September 2018 border deal with Chechnya.

            Until today, he studiously avoided responding to demands that he speak to the issue, but now, he has at least signaled that he is following what is going on with the prisoners, their lawyers, and implicitly their families and followers. But he has done so in a way that is likely to strike those detained, their lawyers, and their families and supporters as too little too late.

            Instead of making a public announcement of his concern, Kalimatov’s interest was indicated only by a report on the website of the Ingush ombudsman who said the republic head had asked to be “regularly informed” about what the detainees and their lawyers  were saying (ingushombudsman.ru/news/sostoyalasy-rabotchaya-vstretcha-glav-respubliki-ingushetiya-s-upolnomotchennm-po-pravam-tcheloveka-v-ri).

            Meanwhile, Kalimatov continued to criticize officials appointed by his predecessor Yunus-Bek Yevkurov; and a pattern has emerged. Whenever Kalimatov attacks some organization, its head is soon replaced. Following his criticism of hospital management, the man in charge of that seems set to be the next one fired. (akcent.site/eksklyuziv/6294).

            But perhaps most important of all, today marks the start of the week when 27 years ago, Ossetian and Russian forces began their full-scale attack on the Ingush living in the Prigorodny district, an attack that resulted in the deaths of at least several hundred Ingush and one that Ingush people now refer to as an act of genocide against them (zamanho.com/?p=14334).