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RUSSIA-CAUCASUS-POLITICS
Thousands in southern Russia demand leader’s ouster over land deal
MAGAS, Russia, Oct 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Several thousand protesters in
Russia’s volatile region of Ingushetia demanded Sunday the resignation of a
veteran leader, accusing him of surrendering swathes of territory to
neighbouring Chechnya.
Activists and clerics in Magas — the capital of the majority-Muslim
Northern Caucasus region of Ingushetia — called for people to take to the
streets after local leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov agreed a border deal with
Chechnya late last month.
The protesters say the pact is detrimental to tightly-populated Ingushetia
as it surrenders territory to much larger Chechnya run by Ramzan Kadyrov, a
hugely controversial former rebel backed by the Kremlin.
Tens of thousands have taken part in protests in Magas since Thursday when
a regional assembly endorsed the land deal.
“We are outraged today because the heads of the two regions decided to
swap lands without asking people,” Khamid Azhigov, a 78-year-old pensioner,
told AFP.
He said that Yevkurov, who has run Ingushetia for the past decade, should
be held criminally responsible for violating the constitution and betraying
his people.
“He should be in prison. We will demand that today and in the future,” said
Azhigov, wearing a traditional sheepskin hat.
The roots of the territorial conflict stem from the early days of the
Soviet Union when borders between various Northern Caucasus territories were
redrawn.
Ruslan Aushev, the region’s first post-Soviet leader, addressed the crowd,
saying Yevkurov should have consulted his people before committing to the
deal.
“The leadership of Ingushetia has made a grave mistake,” Aushev said.
Regional authorities claim that the local legislative assembly have
endorsed the land swap but activists say the results of the vote were
falsified.
In a sign of huge tensions on the day of the vote, Yevkurov was reportedly
pelted with plastic bottles and his guards were forced to fire automatic
rifles into the air to hold back the crowd.
Activists launched indefinite protests from Thursday demanding authorities
annul the deal and parliament hold a new vote.
They set up a makeshift camp near the regional parliament building where
many eat, rest and pray in the presence of riot police.
Russia’s Northern Caucasus struggles with a litany of problems including a
simmering Islamist insurgency, deep poverty and entrenched corruption and
presents one of the biggest challenges for the Kremlin.
The people of Ingushetia and Chechnya are ethnically close. During World
War II, Stalin accused the Chechens and Ingush of collaborating with the Nazi
and deported them to Central Asia. The exiles were later allowed to return.
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian troops fought two
separatist wars in Chechnya, while Ingushetia chose to become a Russian
republic.
BSS/AFP/RY/21:01 hrs