Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 29 – “Ambulance,”
the organization Ingush activists have set up to provide assistance to the
republic’s political prisoners, now has some 600 members and is being funded by
all the teips of the republic, a clear indication that the national movement
has shifted its focus to the prisoners and continues to be an all-Ingush
affair.
Indeed, protest leaders say that “the
struggle for land has been replaced by the struggle for the liberation of the political
prisoners. Izabella Yevloyeva, editor of
the Fortanga portal, says that “initially we protested because of land, then
against the authorities. Now, this struggle like in Moscow is a struggle for
freeing political prisoners” (zamanho.com/?p=15458).
“In the capital under pressure from
society, activists are sometimes freed; but here [in Ingushetia] the authorities
have shown no weakening or even willingness to engage in talks. Prominent opposition figures speak about the
Moscow protests but about us only a few people have even heard.”
Meanwhile, the Chechens are seeking to
use members of the Orstkhoy ethnos to justify the border change of September
2018. (Some Orstkhoy identify as Chechens, some as Ingush, but some insist they
are a separate nationality.) Experts other than Chechen say that their
statements won’t change the border (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/342932/).
And in the judicial system, another
Ingush is now under suspicion of attack police (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/342958/)
while three Ingush policemen have been accused of corrupt practices (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/342957/).
In addition, a Moscow court imposed an enormous fine on Memorial for the failure
of its Ingush office to identify the organization as a foreign agent.
The amount of the fine – 2.3 million
rubles (40,000 US dollars) – is clearly intended to try to force the human
rights organization to reduce its activities in the North Caucasus in general
and in Ingushetia in particular (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/342894/).
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