Protest in Ingushetia over land swap deal with Chechnya
Reuters informs that thousands of people took to the streets of the southern Russian region of Ingushetia to protest against what they said was an unfair land swap deal with the neighboring Russian region of Chechnya.
The protest was taking place in Magas, the regional capital, and as various media footages showed, several thousand people gathered in the vicinity of the regional parliament, accompanied by the sound of security forces firing into the air to try to disperse the crowd.
The Reuters writes that the regional parliament endorsed the new border deal agreed by the heads of Ingushetia and Chechnya, both majority Muslim regions, on September 26.
The deal envisages a land swap meant to end simmering territorial tensions that emerged after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Protesters in Ingushetia said they believed that the deal amounted to a surrender of territory and that the arrangement favored Chechnya at their own region’s expense.
On October 3rd four Russian policemen were killed in Ingushetia ambush. Militants in the North Caucasus say they are fighting for an Islamic state in the strip of provinces along Russia’s southern border. Rights activists say the insurgency is driven by poverty and anger at the heavy-handed tactics of the security forces.
Prepared by Marina Muradyan