Ingush Officials Set Up Military-Patriotic Club to Train Young to Defend Borders of Republic

Paul Goble

            Staunton, October 31 – Akhmed Lyanov, head of Ingushetia’s Dzherakh district, has announced the formation of a military-sports club for young people to train them in the use of weapons so that they can defend “the borders of the republic and the country” (gazetaingush.ru/news/voenno-patrioticheskiy-klub-sozdan-v-gornom-dzheyrahskom-rayone-ingushetii).

            No one in Moscow will have any problems with training young people to defend the borders of the Russian Federation, but it seems unlikely that the central authorities will be equally pleased with the idea that republic officials, admittedly second tier, are training the young to defend the borders of their republic.

            Today, Ingush continued to mark the anniversary of the war with South Ossetia in 1992 in which hundreds lost their lives and tens of thousands were forced to flee from the Prigorodny district which had been part of Ingushetia before 1944 but which has been part of South Ossetia ever since.

            Three aspects of the commemoration are noteworthy: First, republic head Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov, not given to making political statements at all, said that “we do not have the right to forget the bitter lessons of history and must do everything  so that human life will always remain the highest value” (zamanho.com/?p=14428).

            Second, an exhibit at the Memorial Complex of Victims of Repression in Ingushetia explicitly linked the events of 1882 with those of 1944 when Stalin deported the Ingush and destroyed their republic, a linkage many Ingush see as fundamental but that the authorities generally are careful not to highlight  (zamanho.com/?p=14428).

            And third, those taking part in the commemorations collected and distributed food to some 500 IDPs from the 1992 conflict, an act of civic solidarity not always seen in post-Soviet conflicts in the Russian Federation (nazaccent.ru/content/31355-pamyat-zhertv-osetino-ingushskogo-konflikta-pochtili-v.html).

            Meanwhile, a court in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, rejected the appeal of four Ingush protesters whose time in detention was earlier extended to December.  They will now remain behind bars at least until that time (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/341849/).