Ingush Regime Tries but Fails to Organize Mass Meeting in Support of Yevkurov, Mutsolgov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 5 – The government of Ingushetia attempted to organize a mass meeting in Nazaran in support of Yunus-Bek Yevkurov on Russia’s Day of National Unity by forcing students and bureaucrats to attend, Magomed Mutsolgov says. But the effort came up short: few showed up, and Yevkurov’s opponents picketed to protest the border accord.

            “Almost half of those assembled [for the pro-Yevkurov] meeting were interior ministry employees, the body guards of the republic head, and other representatives of the force structures, both in uniform and not,” the rights activist and anti-border agreement leader said (kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342/posts/35194).

            Mutsogolov added that “an absolute majority” of those who were present told activists in the course of an informal poll that they were against changing the border with Chechnya but couldn’t say so publicly because they would be at risk of losing their jobs or even more punishments.

            Yevkurov and other officials spoke to those assembled in defense of the agreement. They did not allow anyone who opposed the accord to speak. Applause was sparse among the few hundred who showed up; and after the speeches, the relatively few people who had come to the main square dispersed (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/327522/).

                Meanwhile, opponents of the border agreement held up posters. They were approached by the police and told to put the posters away.  One opponent said that many Ingush would have come to a meeting on the Day of National Unity had it been a real one and not a PR-action in support of Yevkurov and the border accord. 

            Three other Ingushetia-related developments over the last 24 hours included:

·         Members of the Nagiliyev taip said that the man shown on Chechen television as having come to Grozny to praise Ramzan Kadyrov and the border agreement was not authorized to speak on behalf of the clan. He was speaking only for himself, and he may not even have been the person Grozny journalists said he was (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/327562/).

·         Chechen officials denied that their actions had in any way posed a threat to the Erzi nature reserve. They insisted that all environmental rules were being followed and that development of the area would proceed (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/327558/).

·         Dzhambulat Umarov, the Chechen minister for nationality policy, foreign relations, media relations and information, told France-24 television that “Ramzan Kadyrov doesn’t need any Ingush land, Ingush oil or even more Ingush villages.” The Ingush people can look after all these things themselves (chechnyatoday.com/news/320852).