38 of Ingushetia’s Permanent Representatives in Russia’s Subjects Call for Kalimatov to Release Detainees

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 12 – Thirty-eight of the permanent representatives of Ingushetia in other Russian subjects are calling on republic head Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov to release the more than 30 Ingush now in administrative detention for their participation in demonstrations earlier this year and the end of last.      

            Ingushetia has only 41 such representatives in places with sizeable Ingush communities. Three could not be reached because of absence or illness, but those collecting signatures suggested that all would sign (fortanga.org/2019/12/polpredy-ingushetii-po-rf-prosyat-kalimatova-posodejstvovat-v-osvobozhdenii-politzaklyuchennyh/,  kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343455/  and  zamanho.com/?p=15922).

            For such officials to sign such an appeal suggests that divisions within the Ingush official establishment are deepening and that at least some of the members of that group are positioning themselves for a future in which those now under arrest will be released and politics in Ingushetia dramatically changed.

            “We, the plenipotentiary representatives of the Republic of Ingushetia in the Subjects of the Russian Federation with pain and sadness turn to you with a single request – to provide help in freeing from places of detention our Ingush compatriots.” The letter continues: their only “crime” was to want to have “a free life, to love and work for both their small Motherland and for Russia.”

            “We are the representatives of the Ingush people beyond the borders of Ingushetia and its face to the powers or to ordinary people; and when we are asked about what is happening in our Motherland, it is becoming very painful for us.”  As someone who has worked in the procuracy, they tell Makhmudov, “you better than other know the true cause of this tragedy.”

            Meanwhile, there were two developments in the courts. On the one hand, Ramazan Gagiyev was sentenced to four months in the camps for his role in the March protests. Prosecutors had asked for nine months (zamanho.com/?p=15941 and  rapsinews.ru/judicial_analyst/20191212/305206480.html).

            And on the other, lawyers for Musa Malsagov, also being held for his role in the protests, said that the psychological-linguistic expertise ordered by prosecutors had found no evidence of extremism in his words, something that makes the charges against him even less sustainable than they were (amanho.com/?p=15919, kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343436/ and  kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343462/).

            There was also one piece of unrelated good news about Ingushetia. Residents of the republic live longer after going on pension than do those of any other federal subject in Russia. Men live on average 18.1 years after retirement, while women live on average 29.1 years. The gender difference was also much smaller than in predominantly ethnic Russian regions (akcent.site/eksklyuziv/6693).