Press Release, 25.03.2019

Tomorrow, 26 March, a rally will be held in the city of Magas, the capital of the Republic of Ingushetia, on the issue of preserving the territorial integrity of the Republic. Nikolai Rybakov, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko, will speak at the rally.

Residents of Ingushetia are outraged by the desire of the National Assembly – the legislative body of the Republic – to adopt a new wording of the constitutional law on referendum, which will allow to solve the problems of the region’s borders without the consent of its residents.

Last Fall Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, head of Ingusjetia, and Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Chechnya, signed an agreement on securing the border between Ingushetia and Chechnya. Ingushetia gave Chechnya lands of the Sunzhensky District, which caused widespread dissatisfaction among the residents of Ingushetia.

Under pressure from civic activists, the new version of the law proposed for consideration by the head of the Republic was not adopted in the first reading, but the National Assembly will reconsider it after three months. Ruslan Mutsolgov, leader of the regional branch of the Yabloko party, believes that this time will be used by the regional authorities so that to prepare the public opinion for adoption of the new version of the constitutional law.

The rally is organised by the “Committee of National Unity”, which represents a coalition of political and civil forces of the Republic and includes more than 100 people, representatives of Yabloko inclusive. An application for the rally was filed by the social movement Opora Ingushetii (The Backup of Ingushetia). The rally has a permission from the authorities. It will continue throughout the day. It will begin at 10:00.

The Yabloko party opposed the adoption of backstage agreements to change the boundaries of the subjects of the Russian Federation then. “Such provocative ways of “settling” territorial disputes lead to a split between nations and create a dangerous precedent. Transparency and broad public dialogue are guarantees of the non-repetition of bloody conflicts,” Yabloko’s statement ran.