Ingush Capital Closed to Most Outsiders through April 30 But Siloviki Raids Continue

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 14 – Magas has been closed to all outsiders through the end of the month. Only those with residence permits, officials, or employees of essential stores will be allowed in.  The Caucasus Post reports, however, that “the raises of siloviki will continue in the city” (capost.media/news/obshchestvo/the-entrance-to-the-capital-of-ingushetia-municipality-closed-until-april-30/).

            Meanwhile, lawyers for Magomed Khamkhoyev, who is the only Ingush protester in the initial wave of arrests other than the leaders still in detention and whom it appears was arrested by mistake, say that the authorities keep playing a shell game with him, dropping old charges and bringing new ones to keep him there (fortanga.org/2020/04/advokat-predyavlenie-stati-po-podstrekatelstvu-k-primeneniyu-nasiliya-magomedu-hamhoevu-eto-absolyutnoe-fiasko-sledstviya/).

            And attorneys for Rashid Aushev, another protester, say prosecutors having failed to gather sufficient evidence to prove the charge that they initially made against him and doing the same thing, shopping for charges to keep him behind bars (fortanga.org/2020/04/rashidu-aushevu-snova-vklyuchen-motiv-politicheskoj-vrazhdy-v-prigovor-no-aktivist-vyhodit-na-svobodu/ and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/348318/).

            Because of time already served, Aushev is scheduled to be released tomorrow. But the gyrations of those who have prosecuted his case and those of others suggests that the old Soviet meme that if one has a man, one can find a charge, has been updated and even expanded upon by the Russian authorities in Ingushetia.