Protests in Ingushetia: Down with the Yunus-bek Yevkurov Government!

 

For national self-determination of the Ingushes! No to Russian Imperialism!

 

By Petr Sedov, Supporter of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) in Russia, 29 March 2019, https://vk.com/rcit1917

 
 

1.             Another round of protests has started in Ingushetia since 26 March. There has been already a first wave of demonstrations in October 2018 against the administrative changes of territories. Now the protests are against new law on referendum which clearly served the interest of the regime in Chechnya. According to GIS specialists, the consequences of the deal in October was that Ingushetia has gotten 1,000 hectares from the Chechen Republic while the latter has gotten approximately 26,000 hectares from Ingushetia. [1] The reason behind this land “exchange” is simply favoritism in the interest of the Kadyrov administration which is clearly playing the role of the promoter of Russian state interests in the North Caucasus region. Such favoritism can be also observed from fact that the Constitutional Court of Ingushetia declared that the deal must be approved by referendum, while the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation recognized the deal as legitimate. The Ingush masses are demanding free and direct elections and the resignation of the corrupt Yevkurov government! Moreover, they are fighting against the anti-democratic law on referendum promoted by Yevkurov, which states that the Ingush masses have no right to decide on the borders and on national-self-determination!

 

2.             The protests were answered by the regime with police violence. There is also information about police brutality against protestors (which was absent in 2018). Furthermore, there seems to have been attempts to block the internet traffic by major internet and mobile phone operators. The Russian supporters of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) are condemning any police and state repression against the protestors. The real violence is the systematic oppression of the masses and of their desire to express themselves! For freedom of public assembly and demonstrations!

 

3.             The border between Chechnya and Ingushetia is a long-standing issue. It is rooted in the colonial policies of the Russian Empire in the XIX and XX century, the reactionary policies of the Stalinist USSR as well as the neo-colonial policies of Putin’s state. In 1840 Russian Empire expelled the local Ingush population from the Sunzhensky District and settled instead Cossack settlers. Later, after the great October Revolution in 1917, the question of national self-determination has been raised and the “Mountain ASSR” were formed. In this republic, this district was a separate part of the autonomous region. However, in 1929 the Stalinist regime gave this district to the Chechen republic, and later in the 1930s, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was formed. After the collapse of USSR in 1991, the national question was raised after the Chechen struggle for independence. The border was not de jure defined, and the pro-Russian administration in Chechnya had an apparent desire to get districts in their possession. However, there is no historical justification for these claims except the Stalinist policies in the region. [2] Today the question is combined with neo-colonial Russian policy which strives to keep people of Caucasus divided and subordinated by selecting favorite republican leaders in the federation. Thus, it is essential to support the desire of Ingushes, as an oppressed nation, to realize their right of national self-determination.

 

4.             Ingushetia is one of the poorest regions in Russia. According to statistics, unemployment was about 27% in 2017 while the average in Russia was about 5%. Moreover, Ingushetia is one of the most impoverished republics in Russia. Approximately 32% of the population has an income lower than the living wage. Ingushes, like other Caucasian nations, are subjected to Great Russian chauvinism. Some bloggers observed that media are explicitly calling out the ethnic background of criminals. It is also combined with religious prejudice against Muslims, which state propaganda is promoting by systematic misrepresentation and chauvinistic oppression covered in the fight against so-called “terrorism”. [4]

 

5.             Many of the Russian “left” are not only ignoring such issues but are clearly supporting Russian chauvinism and specific forms of Orientalism. According to Vestnik Buri, to take on example, the question of borders in the Caucasus is connected with “ancient, feudal traditions”. Likewise, the question of Kyril islands (a land disputed between Russia and Japan) is supposedly the question of the land “belonging to people”. Such shameful chauvinism of so-called “Marxists” demonstrates once more that the necessity of fighting for consistent working class internationalism. The highest form of such internationalism is joining – together with comrades in other countries – the struggle of building a Revolutionary World Party. Otherwise, national isolation will put any sincere revolutionary under strong pressure of Great Russian chauvinism.

 

6.             As a revolutionary organization we are calling for:

 

* Down with the Yevkurov government! Free Ingushetia from pro-Russian and anti-working class politicians!

 

* For the right to recall any elected representative of masses! For the formation of soviets of the toilers!

 

* No to chauvinism against Ingush or Chechen people! Fight against neo-colonial regimes, not people! For unconditional but critical support of national-liberation struggles in the region!

 

* An immediate increase in wages for Ingush workers! For a program of public works under workers control to fight against high unemployment! For scaling wages without reduction of salaries!

 

* Down with Islamophobia and chauvinistic hatred against the Muslim masses! Down with privileges to the Russian Orthodox Church from the state! Only people with religious beliefs must decide the fate of religion! Down with Orientalist propaganda, which portrays Caucasus people as “feudal” barbarians!

 

* Join the RCIT in fighting for national liberation against imperialism and neo-colonialism on the world scale!

 

 

 

Footnotes

 

[1] https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/223104/, https://ria.ru/20190320/1551954231.html

 

[2] https://aslan-kuazo.livejournal.com/333488.html

 

[3] https://regnum.ru/news/2337640.html, https://www.magas.ru/content/nazvany-samye-bednye-regiony-rossiityvaingushetiya-kalmykiya, https://u1ver.livejournal.com/117226.html

 

[4] https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=31080

 

[5] “However, the Caucasus is a special world (Sic!!!), in which ancient, almost feudal traditions are still thriving. They [people of Caucasus] take the definition of borders very seriously.” (http://vestnikburi.com/imperialisticheskiy-feodalizm-v-rossii-chechnya-i-ingushetiya/)

 

See also: “Secondly, it is important that the Kuriles have long been part of our country. The country, in reality, belongs to its people. So, any attempt to give part of its territory to someone is a robbery of the population, and we do not want to hear about utopian benefits and games of diplomats. The promises made during the past years have not been fulfilled. Hence, we cannot be bribed by the new ones, and the last diplomatic games have brought only sanctions and role of savages (Putin, vodka, mafia, “bloody morons”).” (https://vk.com/wall-73211733_67629)