Ingush Seven Sentences Recall Those of Stalinist Era, Sufi Adept Tells Putin

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 20 – Even though he expects to be arrested for his efforts, a Sufi adept of Ingush nationality living in Moscow has sent for posting on a Kremlin complaints page an article in which he says the recent sentences handed down against the Ingush Seven resemble those of “the times of Stalin’s repressions.”

            This is noteworthy for at least three reasons:             First, Zyadin Yevloyev makes no effort at anonymity, showing that he is willing to suffer for protesting, an indication of how angry the Ingush and their supporters are about what the Kremlin-backed court has done to the Seven (fortanga.org/2021/12/urozhenecz-ingushetii-poluchil-otpisku-na-obrashhenie-k-putinu-s-prosboj-pomilovat-liderov-protesta/).

            Second, the Ingush activist says he is a member of the Sufi Qadyria order, an indication that this trend in Islam is now involved in the opposition to what the Kremlin has been doing in Ingushetia and the Caucasus more generally. Given the Qadyria’s history of radicalism and self-sacrifice, that points to serious problems for the Russian authorities ahead.

            And third, and this may be the most important sign, it indicates that Ingush dissent, which has always stayed within the law may now have been radicalized to the point by the decision in the Ingush Seven case that ever more Ingush are prepared to risk punishment by taking actions the Russian authorities will construe as illegal.

            Meanwhile, ever more Russian human rights organizations are speaking out on behalf of the Ingush Seven (fortanga.org/2021/12/yurist-obvinenie-dokazalo-otsutstvie-sostavov-prestuplenij-v-dele-ingushskih-aktivistov/), and Memorial has appealed to the European Court for Human Rights against Moscow’s ban of the Council of Teips in Ingushetia (memohrc.org/ru/news_old/memorial-pri-likvidacii-soveta-teypov-v-ingushetii-vlasti-narushili-evropeyskuyu-konvenciyu).