The head of Ingushetia asked Kalyapin “not to be an anti-Chechen mouthpiece” before the attack on human rights activists in the spring

The head of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, before the attack on human rights activists and journalists on the republic’s border with Chechnya in February, warned the head of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Igor Kalyapin, so that his employees would not move the office from Grozny to Ingush territory. Evkurov spoke about this in an interview with Slon.ru and admitted.

“Comrade Kalyapin a year ago, when he had problems in Grozny, called me with the words: “Our people are surviving from Grozny, can I settle in the Republic of Ingushetia?” I told him: “Igor, under no circumstances, you can even in Africa, even in Ossetia, even in Nalchik, even in Moscow, but not in the republic. Why? Because we have our own relations, and I would not want you to be an anti-Chechen mouthpiece in the republic. And this is a normal conversation. Don’t under any circumstances try to do this,” said Yevkurov.

He promised to take measures to ensure that human rights activists disliked by the Chechen leadership would no longer work in Ingushetia. “There is no need to try to pit us against each other in the Caucasus,” the Ingush leader explained his position.

According to him, he personally warned human rights activists, but they “didn’t listen and rented an apartment.” Yevkurov assured that human rights activists did this “secretly,” and in such a situation he would have nothing to say to any leader of the neighboring region who was dissatisfied with this.

The head of Ingushetia stressed that he does not intend to interfere in the law enforcement investigation into the attack. He assured that not only human rights defenders are attacked on the federal highway, and the leadership of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation should not be blamed for this.

On the evening of March 9, on the territory of Ingushetia, not far from the border of Chechnya, about two dozen young people attacked a minibus with journalists and members of the Joint Mobile Group of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture. Unknown people threw everyone out of the car and beat them, and burned the car.

On March 30, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case into the attack under Part 3 of Article 144 of the Criminal Code (obstruction of journalistic activity, combined with violence against journalists, damage or destruction of their property). The case has been combined into one proceeding with previously initiated cases of hooliganism (Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code), intentional destruction or damage to property (Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code) and robbery (Part 2 of Article 162 of the Criminal Code). Five months later, the investigation still has not reported on the results of the investigation. Nothing is known about the suspects or those detained in this criminal case.