Protests continue in Ingushetia amid controversy surrounding border shifts

In the Ingush capital of Magas, protestors momentarily agreed to leave a central square following multiple attempts to disperse them by force, Kavkazsy Uzel reported. Local authorities promised to permit another protest to begin within five days. Some protestors regrouped after leaving the square and blocked a state highway that runs between Baku and Rostov-on-Don, RIA Derbent journalist Malik Butayev told Znak.com.

Ingush residents have rallied regularly since late September of 2018, when Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his Ingush counterpart Yunus-bek Yevkurov signed an agreement to trade contested borderlands between the two Northern Caucasian republics, which are both federal subjects of the Russian Federation.

The most recent protests began on March 26. They followed efforts in the parliament of Ingushetia to amend the republic’s laws in such a way that popular referenda would no longer be required to change the region’s borders. Approximately 10,000 people have voiced their objections to the amendments in the central square of Magas, and many remained on the square overnight. Protestors have also resolved within the past two days to demand Yevkurov’s resignation.