Understand
The Ingush are relatives of the Chechens and have shared their Sunni Islamic beliefs as well as their fate in rebellion and conquest vis-Ã -vis the Russians. In the beginning of the 19th century, a Chechen scholar peacefully converted most Ingush into Islam. Like the Chechens, the Ingush were accused by Stalin of Nazi collaboration and were deported to Kazakhstan. When Khrushchev allowed them to return home, they found that their Orthodox Christian neighbors, the Ossetes, had settled on formerly Ingush lands, launching a violent ethnic conflict which rages on today.
Around 1929-1991, Ingushetia was merged with Chechnya to form the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, and became separated. By 1991, the first Ingush president, Ruslan Aushev attempted to help the already weak economy, and when the first Chechen war started, this created a tremendous problem for the economy. It collapsed after Aushev's success. However, he was forced to leave office when the second Chechen war started. Aushev also founded the city of Magas.
By 2002, Murat Zyazikov came into office, and since then the political and economic situation has worsened, and Zyazikov recieved harsh criticism for his disregard for human rights, corruption, and social and political problems. This was because of alleged abductions, illegal beatings, unlawful arrests and killings of suspects by the federal forces and local police and allied paramilitaries. By 2008, a new president, Yunus-bek Yevkurov succeeded the unpopular Zyazikov and began a campaign into improving the situation in the region.
The poor situation in the republic has made it a magnet for terrorism for Chechen and Ingush rebels, and has continued to make it more uneasy for travelers to visit. The region is desperately very poor, where only 5 in 10 are employed and a large part of the people live in severe poverty and live below $2 a day. The prospects of change are seriously remote at present.
Although the majority of Ingushetia's population lives in the larger northern towns, the Ingush consider their true heritage to be tied to the ancient auls stone mountaintop villages in the south of Ingushetia, especially along the Assy Gorge.
