Moscow Attacks Ingushetia’s Batal-Haji Sufi Order, a Group Some have Called ‘a State within a State’ in that North Caucasus Republic

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 2 – Moscow officials have accused four members of Ingushetia’s Batal-Haji Sufi brotherhood of taking part in the March 2022 attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, an action that threatens both to destabilize that North Caucasus republic and worsen relations between Moscow and Chechnya which has defended the order in the past.
    That is because the brotherhood is so large that its members dominate much of the government of the Republic of Ingushetia and because Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov has sought to use some of its members to allow him to dominate Magas (kavkazr.com/a/batalhadzhintsy-iz-ingushetii-stali-figurantami-dela-o-terakte-v-krokuse-/33184799.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/11/chechnyas-kadyrov-takes-up-cause-of.html).
    The latest Russian accusations are likely to cause the order to close ranks against Moscow, although it is unclear as of this writing whether the Russian government will press these cases in court or quietly pull back from an open break as it did two years ago (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/11/russian-officials-accuse-influential.html).
    But in either case, Magas officials are certainly going to be angry and on the defensive all the more so because of corruption charges against the brother of the official head of the republic; and Chechnya’s Kadyrov is certain to try to exploit the situation by positioning himself once again as a defender of Islamic institutions.
    As a result, there is a growing risk of serious conflicts both in government offices behind the scenes and in the streets where the Ingush population is already furious at Moscow for its continuing repression of those who led the opposition to yielding 10 percent of the republic to Chechnya in 2018 and their current status as the poorest federal subject in the Federation.