Number of Ingush Activists Charged with Extremism Rises to Eight, Attracting Attention of Rights Groups in Moscow

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 17 – Today, two more Ingush activists in detention had the additional charge of participation in an extremist organization. That brings the total in the republic to eight, and as a result, rights groups in Moscow have begun to take notice, now that the authorities in Ingushetia are making the same kind of charges as those in the capital.

            (On this development which may unintentionally help the Ingush by attracting broader attention to their cause, see kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/344761/, kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/344807/, kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/344804/, graniru.org/Politics/Russia/activism/m.278191.html and  kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5E219E632321F).

            Meanwhile, two other Ingush activists were sentenced in a Stavropol Kray court, Khazan Zyazikov to 13 months in jail -- his lawyer says he won’t appeal but asked that his sentence not be imposed immediately because his family is in such difficult straits – and Timur Oziyev who will be released at the end of February because of time served (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/344797/ and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/344794/).

            In other developments, relatives of Ingush activists said that the conditions of the family members of those detained was deteriorating and would be truly dire without the help of First Aid (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/344754/), and the police in Ingushetia have opened a criminal case against a group of men for vandalizing ancient Ingush towers (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/344760/).

            Regarding the situation along Ingushetia’s contested borders, there were two developments: First, Kavkaz-Uzel reported that while the number of border crossing posts on the Ingush-Chechen border has increased in recent months, so far at least, Ingush have not suffered significant inconvenience in crossing (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/344767/).

            And second, the editors of the independent Fortanga news portal say in a lead article that “among the crimes of Yunus-Bek Yevkurov” was his decision in 2013 to disband the border patrol regiment within the republic interior ministry that his predecessors had taken in 1993 and then maintained thereafter (fortanga.org/2019/03/zashhishhaya-rubezhi-respubliki/).

            The group played a key role in controlling refugee flows and preventing the entrance of criminal elements into the republic and blocked Chechen efforts in 2013 to seize portions of Ingushetia. Immediately after that happened, Fortanga says, Yevkurov disbanded the unit and thus made it easier for Grozny to have its way in 2018.

            The portal expresses the hope that the current or some future leader of Ingushetia will restore this unit, viewing it properly as a key element in the defense of the republic and its borders.