INGUSHETIA
INgushetia is a small Republic autonomy in the Caucasus in the Russian Federation. INgushetia stretches on about 4,000 km and has a population of about ½ million (2008). Almost all Ingush are Sunni Muslims.
INgushetia is surrounded by Chechnya from the East and North, by North Ossetia in the West and independent Georgia in the South and is a mountainous country. In 1992 a militia war with ethnic Christian Russians in North Ossetia caused an ethnic cleansing when few thousands Ingush were moved from their home and driven away to INgushetia and vise versa.
Ingush fighters were integrated into the first and second wars in neighbor Chechnya and became senior commanders in the anti-Russians militias and organizations in the Caucasus. Nazran, INgushetia’s capital, was the scene of heavy fighting between pro-Russians and Islamist raiders on 06/22/2004.
Although Russia managed to overcome the Chechens since 2004 and restore a degree of stability in the Caucasus in general and in Chechnya in particular, remnants of Islamic insurgence and organized crime are still operating (10/2008) in the mountains of the Caucasus and of INgushetia as well.
********** ***********
Read more ;
