Russian Presidential Administration Says It Needs More Time to Study Ingush Demands

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 1 – On Thursday, the Russian Presidential Administration said it would not be able to respond to the Ingush petition calling for the removal of Yunus-Bek Yevkurov as republic head, the annulment of the September 26 border accord between Yevkurov and Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov, and the return of the Prigorodny district to Ingush control.

            That petition, signed by over 51,000 Ingush, was handed into the Presidential Administration on January 18; and under existing rule, the PA is supposed to respond to its substance within 30 days – in this case by February 18. But now no decision will be made by that date (kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342/posts/36371).

            The PA cited the need to review a large number of documents. Whether this indicates that Moscow is about to make some concession to the Ingush or not remains uncertain. But most observers in Ingushetia and elsewhere are not optimistic about that possibility given what the powers that be in Moscow have done up to now. 

            This decision will undoubtedly infuriate many in Ingushetia. Two other developments over the last 24 hours will only add to their anger:

On the one hand, the World Congress of the Ingush People has appealed to the members of the Ingush parliament to demand that Moscow change the date of the celebration of the Day of the Defender of the Fatherland from February 23 because that is the anniversary, this year, the 75^th, of the deportation of the Ingush people to Central Asia. No Ingush can celebrate the Day of the Defender of the Fatherland on that sad day (fortanga.org/2019/02/obrashhenie-ot-vsemirnogo-kongressa-ingushskogo-naroda-k-narodnomu-sobraniyu-respubliki-ingushetiya/).

And on the other, a group of Ingush Muslims has appealed to the Coordinating Center for Muslims of the North Caucasus to speak out in defense of the Koran and other religious books given that a Saratov court is currently hearing a case that if it goes against the defendants will lead to a ban being imposed on a Russian translation of the Koran (ontv.su/novosti/5141-ingushskie-musulmane-prizyvayut-berdieva-vstupitsja-za-koran.html).