Ingush Activist Ozdoyev Released from KBR Prison Colony, May Yet Appeal Sentence

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 3 – Magomed Ozdoyev, an Ingush activist who only two weeks ago was sentenced to 16 months in a prison colony for his role in the March 2019 protests, has been released from a camp in Kabardino-Balkaria because of time already served in the investigation isolator (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/346581/).

            He was met by family and friends from his native village. His lawyer says Ozdoyev may yet appeal against the sentence but had elected not to do so while he was still incarcerated lest that be the occasion for keeping him in the camps for a longer period of time. Ozdoyev has insisted he hit a Russian Guard because the latter was hitting others, not for any political reasons.

            Meanwhile, there were two other Ingush-related developments worthy of note. In the first, Ingushetia, which has a high birth rate and thus a very young population, again has the lowest mortality rate of any region in Russia, 2.9 deaths per 1,000. Chechnya and Daghestan are again second and third (doshdu.com/kavkazskie-respubliki-voshli-v-rejting-regionov-rossii-s-samoj-nizkoj-smertnostju/).

            The ten federal subjects with the highest rates, between 15.1 and 16.9 deaths per 1,000 population, are all predominantly ethnic Russian oblasts with low birth rates, higher average ages, and generally poorer epidemiological conditions. The top five of them are Pskov, Novgorod, Tver, Tula, and Ivanovo.

            And in the second, in actions highlighting the sensitivity of land ownership even within Ingushetia, officials have scheduled hearings about the border lines for several private holdings (serdalo.ru/izveshhenie-o-provedenii-sobraniya-o-soglasovanii-mestopolozheniya-granicz-zemelnogo-uchastka/  and serdalo.ru/izveshhenie-o-provedenii-sobraniya-o-soglasovanii-mestopolozheniya-granicz-zemelnogo-uchastka-2/).