Repression which Began in Ingushetia Three Years Ago has Intensified There and Spread to All of Russia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 26 – Three years ago today, thousands of Ingush demonstrated in Magas against the backroom deal between their republic head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov which transferred 10 percent of the smallest non-republic in the Russian Federation to its neighbor.

            The following day as the protest continued, the police moved in detaining and arresting numerous protesters and opening an era of new repression in that North Caucasus republic that has continued to intensify there and spread throughout the Russian Federation now ruled by Vladimir Putin (fortanga.org/2022/03/tri-goda-so-dnya-masshtabnogo-protesta-v-magase-repressii-prodolzhayutsya/).

            The March 26-27 demonstration was unprecedented in the North Caucasus by its size; and the powers in Magas and Moscow moved to suppress it. This led to the Ingush Seven show trial and to the exodus of many Ingush abroad to avoid repression and instead to continue the fight from places of greater safety.

            One of those who has been forced to flee, Izbella Yevloyeva, the chief editor of the independent Fortanga portal, symbolically named for the river that separated Ingushetia and Chechnya before the Yevkurov-Kadyrov deal, says that she and other Ingush knew what the protests might lead to but had no choice.

            “Of course, in taking part in the protests, we understood that there could be repressions; we were warned about this. But the subject was so important for practically every resident of Ingushetia that we could not stand aside. Some of those who remained free, including me and my family, had to flee.”

            “I understood that if we remained in Ingushetia, I would be arrested and could not cover everything connected with ‘the Ingush case,’” Yevloyeva says. “I understood that this was unpleasant for the powers and supposed that against me too some charges would be brought.” Now, the authorities have taken that step even though she is beyond their reach.

            Because she opposes Putin’s warn in Ukraine, she has been charged in absentia with disseminating “deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” in Ukraine (fortanga.org/2022/03/izabella-evloeva-ya-stoyu-na-svoyom-schitayu-vojnu-na-ukraine-prestupleniem/).

            But the Fortanga editor says she has no plans to stop speaking out for the Ingush people, the Ukrainians and all others who are suffering from Moscow’s repression.