Here’s a little wrap up of Caucasian mayhem.
- Sadly, the list of murdered journalists on Registan has a new member, as mentioned in the comments. Magomed Yevloyev [Магомед Евлоев] was a journalist, blogger, and owner of Ingushetiya.ru. Earlier this summer his site was shut
down by court order for “extremism,” which equates to being in active opposition to the local Москва-loyal leadership. After the site was shut down, they had the gall and brains to keep going on a different website. Persistence is a virtue in most things, but sadly it may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Just yesterday, this journalist was shot in the head, while in the custody of law enforcement officials, when the gun “accidentally went off” next to his temple. If an accident could look more like a mob execution, it would have to involve someone slipping into a bag of concrete while jumping off a garbage barge in the East River. Ingushetia, like Ossetia and Abkhazia, also has separatist factions hoping for independence, if not just greater autonomy from Mother Russia.Magomed Yevloyev died Sunday after a police car picked him up from an airport in Ingushetia province in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus and then dumped him on the road with a gunshot wound in his head.
His body was then unceremoniously thrown in the gutter outside a hospital. Yevloyev had premonitions about his upcoming death, and was in the process of seeking asylum, as were other bloggers and journalists connected with his website. All of this follows the latest Human Rights Watch report from Ingushetiya, [from July 2008] which was anything but promising. Again echoing the comments section, it does indeed look like a second Chechnya is brewing in Russia’s Caucasian region. For those unaware, I’ll mention that the Ingush are ethnic relatives of the Chechens, and are likewise Sunni Muslims.
- Russia seems to be isolated among friend and foe alike. Following the SCO summit in Dushanbe, Vladimir Putin has accused the United States, and more specifically Dick Cheney, of being responsible for the Georgian conflict as an election ploy [story from the Guardian, naturally]. The Guardian’s followup of the SCO is also good reading for the uninitiated: the link is here. It explains just what the SCO is [Shanghai Cooperation Organization, forgive my American sensibilities in the spelling of Organization], and how this particular summit didn’t go the way Russia was hoping. It goes a long way in giving people an idea of why Russia and China are not likely to be bosom buddies anytime soon.
- Just about the only person in favor of Russia at the SCO summit was Iran, which is only an observing member as of yet. Ahmadinejad has the least to lose, as the Azeri regions of Iran don’t seem likely targets of Russian imperialism anytime in the near future. Even so, Iran’s comments were reserved, toeing the party line that Western influence is to blame, and that NATO riled up a hornet’s nest. According to Ahmadinejad, left to themselves, the Russians, Georgians, and everyone else in the Caucasus would live in peace. Well, experience is my only teacher, and I have to disagree. The nationalism introduced in the region in the last centuries has done a fair job of making sure neighboring people will do their best to refuse to see each other as neighbors. Comments here and on other blogs lead me to pessimism; for example, words like “the Georgians aren’t a peaceful people” and “Russians thrive on chaos.” Russians thrive on the same thing as everyone else, and Georgians are as peaceful as anyone else. The problem is not that we don’t understand each nation’s inherent tendencies – the problem, in my opinion, is that we keep believing such inherent tendencies even exist. [\rant]
- And this just in: Magomed’s [Muhammad, if you prefer] funeral has turned into a protest. Angry mourners are shouting – what happens next? Who even knows anymore? Thoughts, guesses, conjectures welcomed in the comments. Is Ingushetia next? Next for what?
This post was written by...
Michael Hancock-Parmer – author of 153 posts on Registan.net.
Michael earned an MA in Central Eurasian Studies in 2011 and remains a student at Indiana University pursuing a dual PhD in Russian History and Central Eurasian Studies. He served 6 months in the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan in 2005. After the events in Andijan and the subsequent closure of the program, he served 2 years in southern Kazakhstan, returning to the Midwest in 2007. His general area of interest is on post-Timur Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, centered on the Syr Darya river valley.
{ 1 comment }
The last developments show that Russia has no control on what is going on in Ingushetia and in the whole Caucasus region in general. Ingushetia is located just north of the Russia-Georgia conflict zone and Ingush are in blood feud with Osetians since the horrible Vladikavkaz conflict.
The former Ingush president Ruslan Aushev did not back Chechnya during their war with Russia although Chechen and Ingush people are closest relatives being just two branches of Vainah people.
After coming to power Putin did something very stupid. He did not let Aushev govern Ingushetia. I think as any small and mediocre people Putin simply envied Aushev and was affraid of the popularity Aushed had among people in Caucasus. General Aushev is a legendary hero. When I served in Army, among the troops, Aushev, then colonel, was the only famous and popular comander in Afghanistan, much more known than General Gromov who was a comander of all Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Colonel Aushev became a Hero of Soviet Union, the highest military honor for his regiment undergone lowest losses in the whole Afghanistan campaign. He was simply a legend.
When war in Chechnya began, Aushev, the first democratically elected president of Ingushetia did not follow General Dudaev but kept loyality to Russia.
When Putin came to power he made Aushev resign from the post. (Putin is a mediocre spy and Aushev is a war hero)Instead he put his puppet Zyazikov, who is now known for being one of the most crooked satraps in Caucasus. As Aushev lost his leadership, Ingushetia slipped to almost total disorder. Corrupt Militia (police) and FSB kidnap and kill people, especially opposition, guerillas kill police and FSB, nationalists slaughter whole russian families.
Most people want Zyazikov out, but he is backed by Moscow. Now the police killed Mohamed Yevloyev, owner of independent site Ingushetia.ru. Based on the meeting in Nazran, it could be the straw that broke the camel’s back.