Paul Goble
Staunton,
November 28 – The organizers and participants in the small St. Petersburg demonstrations
the last two days in support of Ingush opponents of the border accord concluded
in September by Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov were not
members of the small Ingush diaspora there but Russians committed to civil society
and federalism.
The police arrested and then released nine protesters.
One, Olga Smirnova of Petersburg Solidarity, said backing of the Ingush
position was a matter of principle: “Russia must really be a federal state.”
She carried a poster reading: “Ingush: Petersburgers are With You!” (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328470/,
kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328435/
and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328467/).
What makes this development important is that it suggests
that concerns about the Ingush events are resonating not just with other
peoples in the North Caucasus but with ethnic Russians far from that region and
that federalism is something some Russians are prepared to come into the
streets to support, a position not always in evidence among Russian opposition
groups.
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