Putin Tells Yevkurov Not to Use Force but Rather to Talk with Ingush Protesters

Paul Goble

            Staunton, October 14 – As the Magas protests against the border agreement Ingush head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov signed with Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov entered their third week, Vladimir Putin telephoned Yevkurov to tell him that he should not use force against the demonstrators but instead talk to them in order to find a resolution.

            Putin did not say what such a resolution might look like, Yevkurov indicated when he told Ekho Moskvy about the call (echo.msk.ru/programs/beseda/2295624-echo/), a response that only added to the sense many Ingush now have that Putin is ignoring the problem or tilting toward Kadyrov against their republic (newsland.com/community/8211/content/ingushskii-deputat-o-pozitsii-moskvy-nelzia-k-narodu-tak-otnositsia/6510564).)

                Some of them, like republic deputy Zakri Mamilov, go even further. “Honestly speaking,” he told Deutsche Welle that he has ben “simply shocked by the behavior of the federal authorities. Ingushetia while small is a subject of the Russian Federation. If the people stand in the square for days, then the authorities should react somehow.”

            At the very least, Moscow should try to determine who is right and who is wrong, take measures, and so on, but this “deafening silence” is beyond understanding.  The central authorities need to focus their attention on the people. “In the end,” he said, “the people aren’t a herd or a swamp. One should treat the people this way.”

            According to Mamilov, Kadyrov and Yevkurov have already sent their accord to the Federation Council in Moscow for ratification, something that could happen as early as Monday. Everyone in Ingushetia knows that Moscow backs Kadyrov and will do what he wants regardless of what the Ingush say.

            But the deputy said that he didn’t believe that the two nations would descend into violence. “We are after all one people in essence, although history has in places divided us. Of course, in both Chechnya and Ingushetia there are nationalists who will use the events to try to inflame ethnic hostility. But this won’t have a mass character.”

                The Forbidden Opinion Telegram Channel said that the situation in Ingushetia is rapidly approaching “a fork in the road,” where people will have to choose to give up – and many ar tired -- or take their protest to another level.  Neither Yevkurov nor Moscow have a clear plan on what to do (t.me/TheForbiddenOpinion/2432).

                Had the local siloviki not gone over to the people, the channel continued, Moscow might have used force already; but it considers the local police force unreliable and doesn’t want a clash between its forces and those of Ingushetia.  At the same time, it said, the authorities in the center want a solution soon – and that may require force.

            If that should prove the case, “in the final analysis, the cure could turn out to be more dangerous than the disease, but at present there simply aren’t any other doctors in Russia, The Forbidden Opinion concludes. That is especially likely because of a development that Yekaterina Sokiryanskaya points to.

            According to her – and she is the director of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Conflicts in the North Caucasus -- “the protest in Ingushetia has united residents, elites and even the siloviki, something that has not been the case under Putin” (theins.ru/opinions/121410). That means that any clash with federal siloviki could be far more violent than anyone wants.

            In its continuing chronology of the Magas protests, the Kavkaz-Uzel news agency points to three additional developments over the past 24 hours (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/326282/):

·         Daghestani activists finally made it to Magas and appealed to the demonstrators to remain calm and enter into talks with officials. (Cf. chernovik.net/content/lenta-novostey/dagestanskie-obshchestvenniki-prizvali-kavkaz-k-miru).

·         Leaders of the protest gave speeches throughout the day, with some attracting larger crowds than in the past few days. There were suggestions that some Ingush are tired and increasingly losing hope that their presence will lead to a positive outcome; but most are remaining in the square.

·         Ingush activists began collecting complaints about the actions of IT providers who appear to have selectively cut off service to the protesters.