Paul
Goble
Staunton, December 25 – Since he
became head of the Ingush Republic, Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov ahs replaced 12
ministers and two deputy prime ministers to put his stamp on the government;
but republic analysts say his bringing in outsiders and his failure to take
into account the balances among the key teips set the stage for a new round of
protests early in 2020.
To forestall that, the analysts
suggest, Kalimatov will have to install representatives of various teips in
ministerial or sub-ministerial positions in the Magas government, something that
may be hard to do given the involvement of the leading teips in the protest
movement (doshdu.com/glava-ingushetii-za-polgoda-uvolil-pochti-vseh-ministrov-i-glav-municipalitetov/).
Meanwhile, a new poll showing that
65 percent of Ingush believe the potential for inter-ethnic conflicts in the
republic is close to zero is being trumpeted by Nationalities Minister Ruslan
Volkov as evidence that he has been doing his job (interfax-russia.ru/South/news.asp?sec=1671&id=1092896).
But just like the decline in xenophobia
among Russians in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and Anschluss of
Crimea, the Ingush poll more likely shows that at present the Ingush are more
focused on the failures of Moscow and their republic government to defend the
republic than on other ethnic groups.
There was yet another development in
the North Caucasus which may resonate in Ingushetia. In the course of a
five-hour press conference, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said he would give Daghestan
the 10 hectares now in dispute if the Daghestanis asked politely rather than
going to court (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/343936/).
There is absolutely no question that
the land being disputed is Chechen land, he said; but in the interest of
comity, he is prepared to be generous. In other comments, Kadyrov said he
approved of the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin but insisted that neither
Grozny nor Moscow had anything to do with it.
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