In the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, the authorities are currently pursuing 26 criminal cases over demands to halt the transfer of land to neighbouring Chechnya. Activists are accused of violent conduct towards the police and calling for civil unrest. There are regular reports of new arrests, and there may well be more in the future.
At a minimum, these protests have halted plans for a significant allocation of Ingush territory to Chechnya. Since autumn last year, the rallies in Magas, Ingushetia’s capital, have also provoked public support in other Russian cities and abroad, with activists organising pickets in support of protesters. The Russian press has already called these investigations a “second Bolotnaya Square Case”, in reference to the numerous prosecutions that followed protests over Vladimir Putin’s 2012 inauguration.
The first hints that there was something amiss on Ingushetia-Chechnya border came in September 2018, when border posts began to move. Soon after, locals discovered that an agreement had been reached on a so-called boundary amendment between the two republics.
