If Moscow Court Rules for Yevkurov, Ingush Activists Say They’ll Resume Protests and Raise Issue of Prigorodny District

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 22 – It is becoming increasingly obvious that however the Russian Constitutional Court rules on Yunus-Bek Yevkurov’s appeal of a decision by his republic’s constitutional court against the procedures he used to ratify his border accord with Chechnya, the crisis is not going to go away and may even escalate.

            If the court rules against Yevkurov, that decision will enflame Ramzan Kadyrov and other Chechens and they will likely try to enforce their point of view by physically taking full control of the area Yevkurov agreed on September 26 to transfer to them (caucasustimes.com/ru/chechency-i-ingushi-popali-v-lovushku/).

                But if the court rules for Yevkurov, Ingush activists say they will not only renew their public protests against the border accord but also raise the issue of Ingushetia’s border with North Ossetia in the Prigorodny district which the two republics engaged in bloody battles in 1992 that cost almost 600 lives. (On it, see warandpeace.ru/ru/commentaries/view/29276/.)  

            That threat was made at a press conference in Manas today by members of the Ingush Committee of National Unity which was behind the earlier demonstrations and the convention of the World Congress of the Ingush People (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328208/, kavkazr.com/a/29613425.html and kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/378/posts/35432).

            Meanwhile, there were three other important developments in or linked to the Ingush-Chechen dispute:

·         Chechnya’s Kadyrov is picking up support on the issue of the border with Ingushetia not only among people in the republic which he controls with an iron hand but also among members of the Chechen diaspora in Europe, many of whom now live there because they are opponents of the Chechen strongman (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/326652/).

·         Chechens are complaining that a public scandal arising from a war of words between a Chechen official responsible for hunting and an Ingush taip leader are “destructive” and can “only worsen relations between the two peoples” (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328216/).

·         And inspired by Ingush activists, Circassians are stepping up their efforts to defend their nation, gathering more signatures in a petition calling for the division of Karachay-Cherkessia where they are an oppressed minority (kavkazr.com/a/29614575.html), protesting against a Russian government move to strip a Circassian repatriant of Russian citizenship (circassianprogress-rus.blogspot.com/2018/11/blog-post_21.html), and organizing a new online community to promote a common Circassian national movement (circassianprogress-rus.blogspot.com/2018/11/blog-post_16.html).