Ingush Outraged by Vladikavkaz Plan to Include Portion of Ingushetia in North Ossetia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 13 – Two weeks ago, Vladikavkaz announced that it had sent out for review its plans to include within North Ossetia land that had belonged to Ingushetia before its people was deported in 1944 and that was not given back to them when those deported returned, a failure that sparked a bloody border war between the two republics in 1992.

            Earlier this month, officials in the historically Ingush regions North Ossetia says it will annex denounced the plan, and they have been followed by denunciations not only by Ingush officials in Magas but also by activists there who fear that Magas may not resist this land grab (fortanga.org/2024/09/ingushetiya-protiv-izmeneniya-granicz-vlasti-respubliki-blokiruyut-proekt-severnoj-osetii/).

            Such fears arise from the fact that in 2018, Magas said it would not change the borders with Chechnya but then the republic’s leader signed a deal with Grozny that did just that, costing the republic a large swath of its territory and sparking mass demonstrations that continue to echo in the courts.

            Despite Moscow’s repeated insistence that Magas and Vladikavkaz sign a border agreement, the two have not done so, and the dispute continues. But the Ingush government has declared a moratorium on any border changes until at least 2030, making what Vladikavkaz is trying to do at a minimum premature and more likely the trigger of new protests.

            Any such new protests almost certainly would be far more radical than those which took place in 2018-2019 given the repression that Moscow and Magas have visited on that republic, the support its people have received from Ukraine, and the formation of an Ingush independence movement.

            So far, this latest dispute has remained within the chancelleries of the two governments; and it seems likely Moscow will work to try to ensure that it remains there. But if North Ossetia takes any additional steps, the mass protests that roiled Ingushetia after the handover of land to Chechnya are likely to return and, in contrast to the earlier ones, could become violent.