Kalimatov’s ‘Confused and Hopeless’ Reign Must End Soon, One of Ingush Seven Writes from Jail

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 26 – Barakh Chemurziyev, one of the Ingush Seven now on trial for his role in the March 2019 protests, says that republic head Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov continues to show himself “confused and hopeless” as republic head and should consider resigning before things deteriorate further.

            In another letter from jail, the Ingush activist says Kalimatov, who has been in office almost 18 months, has failed to assemble a new team, has not taken action to solve the republic’s problems, and continues to talk as if he had just arrived and does not bear any responsibility for what is happening in Magas (fortanga.org/2021/01/monolog-odinokogo-cheloveka-ili-glas-vopiyushhego-v-pustyne-zapiski-iz-sizo-barah-chemurziev/).

            Being head of Ingushetia is no easy thing, especially now, Chemurziyev says; but Kalimatov acts as if it is some kind of “sinecure” or retirement position. And as a result, the Ingush people who had had great hopes for him after the 11 years of his disgraceful predecessor Yunus-Bek Yevkurov are turning away from him.

            Unless Kalimatov does the honorable thing and resigns, he will soon find himself in the latest of what is becoming a long line of Ingush leaders imposed by Moscow who can’t cope with the problems of Ingushetia and whose failure to do so will lead Moscow to replace him all his loyalty to the Kremlin notwithstanding.

            Today provided an additional piece of evidence of the failure of Kalimatov’s administration. The republic’s ministry for nationality policy, instead of seeking to ease a conflict over land between two teips, has distanced itself from the issue with officials suggesting that the teips should just be stripped their traditional roles (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/359038/).

            Meanwhile, at the trial of the Ingush Seven, yet another witness said that those charged had acted entirely legally and that the charges against them were the result of provocations staged by the authorities in order to try to repress Ingush society (fortanga.org/2021/01/svidetel-podtverdil-zakonnost-dejstvij-liderov-protesta-v-magase/).

            And in yet another trial of an Ingush protester, this one of Magomed-Bashkir Ozdoyev, which is being held in Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria rather than as the law requires in Ingushetia, judges approved his pre-trial detention for another two months (fortanga.org/2021/01/magomed-bashir-ozdoev-ostavlen-pod-arestom-eshhe-na-dva-mesyacza/).