Actions against Protesters in Moscow Recall Those against Ingush, ‘Kavkaz-Uzel’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 6 – The actions of the Russian authorities against protesters in Moscow this past week recall those officials have used against Ingush demonstrators over the past year, actions that include turning off mobile Internet networks, arresting people not in violation of any law, and fabricating cases against them,  the Kavkaz-Uzel news agency says.

            This suggests that the crackdown in Ingushetia may have been a dress rehearsal for how the Russian powers that be intend to proceed against any challenge by the population anywhere in the country to illegal acts by the authorities. If that is so, it makes the Ingush protests even more important and instructive than many think (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/338773/).

            Meanwhile, two other ratings suggest that Ingushetia officials are now leaders in the drift toward an ever more repressive Russia.  The Infometer Center says that Magas has one of the five least useful and open websites among regional governments without the kind of features most have (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/338751/).

            And the OVD Center says that Ingushetia currently ranks third in terms of the number of protesters who have been detained in per capita terms, behind only Kabardino-Balkaria and St. Peterburg. According to its research, last year, 12.5 of every 100,000 Ingush had administrative cases launched against them (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/338747/).

            In another example of the violation of the law by Ingush officials and their Russian backers, Akhmed Barakhoyev, one of the leaders of the protest movement in the republic, has been shifted to yet another jail, his fifth so far according to his attorneys. He is now in Stavropol Kray (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/338796/  and fortanga.org/2019/08/sudebno-sledstvennoe-izdevatelstvo-nad-politzaklyuchennymi-prodolzhitsya-6-go-avgusta/).

            Moscow’s Nezavisimaya gazeta provides new details on the changeover in the leadership of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD) of Ingushetia. It says that according to the Council of Teips of Ingushetia, the previous mufti decided to leave the top post lest official anger at him lead the authorities to shut down the MSD entirely (ng.ru/ng_religii/2019-08-06/10_469_inguszetia.html).