Call for Talks Between Ingush Activists and Chechen Officials about Border Gets Mixed Reception

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 28 – A call by Mekhk-kkhel leader Sarazhdin Sultygov and Chechen parliament speaker Magomed Daudov for a meeting at which the two sides could discuss the border between their two republics has received a mixed reception, with regional activists generally supportive and most Ingush ones opposed.

            Ruslan Kutayev, head of the Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus, and Yekaterina Sokiryanskaya, director of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Conflicts, welcome the initiative, arguing that any talks about the dispute are to be welcomed because talking is better than fighting (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/363344/).

            But the leaders of most Ingush NGOs with whom the Fortanga news agency spoke oppose the idea, seeing it as an asymmetric trap because it would involve Chechen officials but Ingush private citizens (fortanga.org/2021/04/obshhestvennost-ingushetii-ne-podderzhala-inicziativu-vstrechi-s-magomedom-daudovym/).

            Meanwhile, at another hearing of the Ingush Seven trial, defense lawyers complained when the judge again classified information about those giving testimony against their clients, saying that there was no justification for this illegal and unconstitutional action (fortanga.org/2021/04/zashhita-liderov-ingushskogo-protesta-zayavila-o-neobosnovannom-zasekrechivanii-poterpevshih/).

            And in a third major development in Ingushetia, officials reported that residents had filed 1114 complaints to the republic’s human rights ombudsman, a figure down only slightly from 2019 when 1162 did so and one that means one in every 500 Ingush had such a complaint (ingushetia.ru/news/apparatom_upolnomochennogo_po_pravam_cheloveka_v_respublike_ingushetiya_v_2020_godu_rassmotreno_1114/).

            Meanwhile, in other developments in that North Caucasus republic,

·         The Southern Military Court began hearings in the trial of Ali Taziyev who is accused of attacking military personnel in 2009-2010 and who has twice been sentenced to life in prison. He denies all charges (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/363336/).

·         Memorial has declared Akhmed Pogorov, a former Ingush official who has recently been arrested on charges of using force against police and being part of an extremist organization, a political prisoner (fortanga.org/2021/04/ahmed-pogorov-priznan-politzaklyuchennym/).

·         And Ingush archaeologists are continuing their protest against the construction of a Russian military base in the republic by pointing out that the area has not been fully excavated and that important historical materials may be lost if the base is built (fortanga.org/2021/04/arheolog-obosnoval-nedopustimost-stroitelstva-poligona-v-ingushetii/).