Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 4 – Last month, the independent Fortanga news agency of Ingushetia reported that North Ossetia has decided to redraw the border between the two republics, sparking concerns that Ingushetia would lose still more territory in the Prigorodny District which Moscow did not return to Ingushetia in the 1950s when the Ingush people returned from deportation.
The situation sparked anger in Ingushetia, the threat of mass protests like those which roiled that republic after Magas gave up 10 percent of the republic’s territory to Chechnya in 2019, and even the possibility of armed clashes between people in the two republics (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/09/ingush-outraged-by-vladikavkaz-plan-to.html).
The situation was calmed somewhat by reassuring words from Ingush officials that no border changes were in the offing, although the failure of Moscow and its installed leader in Magas to say anything about this has left people there worried about the future (themoscowtimes.com/2024/10/04/in-russias-caucasus-a-tentative-border-redraw-edges-republics-closer-to-instability-a86571).
One Ingush activist speaking to The Moscow Times on condition of anonymity, said that he is “convicted that the Kremlin deliberately keeps this issue unresolved like a trump card up its sleeve” so as to “allow it to destabilize the situation here and start a war when they deem it beneficial for one reason or another.”
It is thus “only a matter of time without a doubt” when the Ingush will go to war for this land given that “100 percent of the Ingush people are raised with the firm belief in the inevitable return of these territories by any means” lest their republic be destroyed step by step with its neighbors taking ever more of its land.
No comments:
Post a Comment