Repression in Ingushetia Driving Some who Oppose the Regime to Leave the Republic

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 2 – As in the Russian Federation as a whole, government repression in Ingushetia are prompting ever more people to leave that republic; and also like the RF as a whole, they are driving out some of the most active, exactly the kind of individuals needed for Ingushetia to flourish.

            Some are leaving because they are under direct threat of arrest, but others are leaving because the actions of officials have made it difficult if not impossible for them to live as they wish.  There are no statistics on those departing – officials don’t want to admit it and opposition leaders don’t want to discourage those who remain.

But this exodus is now large enough that both are acknowledging it albeit in indirect ways. The government has launched a campaign about the upcoming census. Because the growth rate in the republic, births over deaths, is so high, the population will be large and thus obscure the departures (serdalo.ru/vladimir-slastenin-uchastie-kazhdogo-zhitelya-respubliki-v-perepisi-naseleniya-vazhno-dlya-strategicheskogo-planirovaniya-razvitiya-ingushetii/).

            And opposition figures, like republic Yabloko leader and blogger Magomed Mutsolgov are now speaking about the last year as one of “losses,” not only because of the deaths of relatives, in his case, his mother’s, but also because of the departures of friends and comrades in arms, in many cases apparently permanently (kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342).

            The powers that be are likely to view this tend as working in their favor; and the opposition as working against its. But because of the internet, at least some of those who move abroad will continue to be active in the republic, as for example the leader of the Fortanga news agency, and even play the role that emigrations have so often played in Russian history.

            Meanwhile, the Akcent site reports that republic head Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov has signed a one million ruble (16,000 US dollar) contract with TASS to launch a program to promote “a positive image” of the republic, which in his view means in the first instance a positive image of himself (akcent.site/eksklyuziv/7304).