Ingush Need Real Statehood and Not ‘Fake’ Version Moscow is Imposing on Them, Activists Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 4 – Today is the 28^th anniversary of the creation of the Republic of Ingushetia, making it the youngest subject in the Russian Federation and an occasion for Ingush activists to reflect on where the republic is now and where they hope it will be in the future. The reflections of five commentators won’t please the Kremlin.

            Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the Coordination Council of Ingush Republic NGOs, says Ingushetia today faces another round of difficult times because of the corruption of leaders who ignore the views of its people and the incarceration of some of its best people for speaking out on the behalf of the Ingush nation (kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342/posts/43561).

            “Our people,” he continues, “has experienced many tragic events and often has revived practically from the ashes into which tyrants have planned to convert us. Today, before us, stand a multitude of tasks and problems which we must solve independently” rather than allow others to solve for us.

            Ayup Gagiyev, the chief justice of the republic’s Constitutional Court, says that “statehood, especially for small peoples is the chance to preserve themselves as an ethnos, to develop economically, culturally and socially and not to lose their national identity” (fortanga.org/2020/06/nam-nuzhna-svoya-gosudarstvennost-no-ne-butaforskaya/).

            Those appointed to rule over the Ingush “do not always unfortunately” do what is necessary to ensure that will be the case, the judge adds.

            Ruslan Mutsolgov, head of the Ingushetia branch of  the Yabloko Party, says that in recent years, “the federal center has deprived the regions of absolutely all rights and any opportunity to defend their interests” by taking away “the means for the solution of their problems” (fortanga.org/2020/06/nam-nuzhna-svoya-gosudarstvennost-no-ne-butaforskaya/).

            “In fact,” he continues, “the leaders of the republic are not representatives of the interests of the people: They are mediators who promote the position of the federal center and by any means try to put it in place. We need our own statehood: without it, we will not be able to preserve ourselves and develop. Of course, it must be real and not fake.”

            Mustafa Dzagiyev, an Ingush activist, says that the demands of the people are greater than anything the current rulers assigned by the Kremlin can meet. And that means that “sooner or later,” there must be fundamental changes in the way things are done in Ingushetia (fortanga.org/2020/06/nam-nuzhna-svoya-gosudarstvennost-no-ne-butaforskaya/).

            And Tanzila Chabiyeva, a scholar at the Moscow Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, adds that the unity that the Ingush people have shown over the last two years will “force the regional powers to listen to the opinion of society and consider the interests of the people,” something she implies they haven’t done up to now (6portal.ru/posts/к-28-летию-республики-ингушетия-некотор/).