Mutsolgov: Ingush resettlers to Urals will face hard labour

As reported by Adam Malsagov, acting Minister of Economy of Ingushetia, about 400 Ingush families want to move for employment to the Sverdlovsk Region.

"All the interested persons are put on the list, indicating the family composition, work experience and education level. These persons should be already registered as unemployed; for them to be received at the republic's employment centre, where all the documentation for resettling and funding is prepared," Mr Malsagov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He also said that under the arrangement with the leaders of the Sverdlovsk Region the Ingush families will be accommodated in rural type settlements of the Aktinsk and Shalin Districts. Each family will get 58,800 roubles of financial support.

There are fixed dates for resettlement.

"President Yunus-Bek Evkurov thinks about spring; indeed, in winter nobody will go to work there," Mr Malsagov has noted.

In his turn, Magomed Mutsolgov, an Ingush human rights activist and an expert at the office of the Russian Ombudsman, who went in late November-early December 2009 as a member of the republic's delegation to the Sverdlovsk Region, believes that people should not hope for easy money in the Urals.

"They have plenty of deserted houses and farms there, and over 100,000 hectares suitable for agriculture, 60-65 percent of them are empty. Those who have serious plans to be farmers and who have money to launch their agrarian business should go there. The money promised by the state is not sufficient," Mr Mutsolgov said.

However, the programme of resettlement gives rise to criticism not only in Ingushetia, but also beyond.

Thus earlier, Abdul-Mutalip Bogatyryov, chairman of the Ingush Diaspora in Ekaterinburg, spoke critically about this initiative. According to his story, the Ingush families have no idea where they go.

"Ceilings are crushed down, stoves are disassembled, there's no electricity and water, not even a well in the yard, not even a toilet! In general, it is easier to build a new house than repair what they have there," Mr Bogatyryov said.