Ingush Authorities Block Opposition Website

The independent Ingushetiya.ru website, citing unnamed sources within Ingushetia’s Interior Ministry, reported on November 13 that Ingushetian Interior Minister Musa Medov had ordered two Ingushetian Internet providers, ZAO “ITT” and OOO “Telekom,” to block internet users’ access to Ingushetiya.ru. According to the website, anyone inside Ingushetia who tried to access Ingushetiya.ru was being rerouted to a pornographic website. According to Ingushetiya.ru, the director of OOO “Telekom” Ibragim Albakov and his programmer Iles Dzaurov were summoned on November 12 by Medov and ordered to block access to Ingushetiya.ru, warning that OOO “Telekom” would be closed down if they did not comply.

Ingushetiya.ru reported that Medov was acting on the orders of Ingushetian President Murat Zyazikov, who fears unrest if the opposition goes ahead with its planned demonstration in Nazran on November 24 to protest the killing of six-year-old Rakhim Amriev by security forces in the village of Chemulga on November 9. Kavkazky Uzel reported on November 13 that Medov, again acting at Zyazikov’s behest, also ordered the main mobile phone operators in Ingushetia–Beeline, Megaphon and MTS–to block access to Ingushetiya.ru via mobile phones.

Kavkazky Uzel on November 13 quoted the owner of Ingushetiya.ru, Magomed Yevloev, as saying that the main reason his website was being blocked was that Zyazikov fears that the truth about the situation in Ingushetia will reach “a maximum amount of the population,” as well as “federal structures” and the Kremlin. Yevloev told Kavkazky Uzel he thought his website was being blocked now both because of the protest demonstration set to take place in Nazran on November 24 and the Ingushetian authorities’ fear that residents of the republic will not go out and vote for the pro-Kremlin United Russia party in the State Duma elections, which will take place throughout Russia on December 2. Yevloev said the authorities in Ingushetia fear that by having access to Ingushetiya.ru, the public will find out about the “falsification” of the December 2 federal parliamentary vote in Ingushetia, which, he claimed, is “already prepared.” Yevloev said his website is lodging complaints with the Prosecutor General’s Office and Rossvyazokhrankultura (the Federal Service for Public Communications, Media Law Enforcement and the Protection of Cultural Heritage), which is the Russian government’s media watchdog, over the actions of the providers in blocking access to Ingushetiya.ru, adding that the providers’ actions include illegal behavior connected to, among other things, the dissemination of pornography.

Kavkazky Uzel on November 14 quoted the director of OOO “Telekom,” Ibragim Albakov, as confirming that people trying to access Ingushetiya.ru were being rerouted to a pornographic website. Albakov, however, categorically denied that his company had anything to do with it.