Yevkurov’s Day of the Republic Capital Falls Flat After Opposition Calls for Boycott

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 21 – Yunus-Bek Yevkurov’s efforts to recover politically by means of a pompous celebration of the Day of the City in Magas fell flat after his opponents called for a boycott. Several headliners scheduled to appear didn’t, and the absence of the population was hidden only when bureaucrats were told to attend or risk losing their jobs.

            The Moscow media sought to play the celebration as a great success (tass.ru/v-strane/6357955), but local coverage underscored just how isolated the Ingush republic head now is, with Yevkurov’s opponents insisting that this is now time for big celebrations when 50 Ingush are in jail on political charges  (zamanho.com/?p=6642 and zamanho.com/?p=6624).

            Three other developments involving the Ingush crisis reported today are:

·         Malsag Uzhakov, the head of the Union of Teips of Ingushetia, will be held for two months by a court order for investigation of charges that he supposedly attacked police during a demonstration, a court action that the Union of Teips has denounced as political (graniru.org/Politics/Russia/Politzeki/m.276021.html and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/334570/).

·         Ingush activists in Moscow unfurled a banner in Moscow in honor of Akhmed Barakhoyev, one of the Ingush opposition figures now in detention, on the occasion of his 65^th birthday (zona.media/news/2019/04/20/malsag-arest, kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/334580/ and  kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/334134/).

·         A case involving charges of torture against police while they were holding Ingush protesters is now going be restarted, human rights activists say (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/334578/).