Malsag Uzhakhov was released from prison.

Ingush public figure and elder Malsag Uzhakhov, who served a nine-year sentence in the case of protest leaders, has been released from a penal colony in the Volgograd region.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot", in December 2024, Zarifa Sautieva was released from prison, and in February 2025, Bagaudin Khautiev and Barakh Chemurziev were released. On April 1, 2025, Ismail Nalgiev was released, and Sautieva and Nalgiev celebrated a wedding after their release. On February 17, Musa Malsagov and elder Akhmed Barakhoev were released.

73-year-old Ingush political prisoner Malsag Uzhakhov was released from prison today, finding freedom for the first time since 2019.

Videos of Uzhakhov's release, who was serving time in Penal Colony No. 12 in the Volgograd Region, were posted on his social media page by user Hamarz Kostoy. Uzhakhov was met at the prison by about 20 relatives and associates.

"Our elder Malsag Uzhakhov is free," he wrote.

Before his imprisonment, Uzhakhov was the chairman of the Council of Teips of the Ingush People, an independent association of elders that demanded the return of direct elections for the leader. The organization was created in 2016 as an alternative to the pro-government council under the head of the republic, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, Fortanga notes.

The Supreme Court of Ingushetia liquidated the Council of Teips in 2020, but the European Court of Human Rights recognized this decision as illegal in January 2026.

Today, former head of the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs, Akhmed Pogorov, remains in prison, becoming the eighth person convicted in the "Ingush case." He also received a nine-year sentence. Pogorov, who was on the federal wanted list and was detained in February 2021, was sentenced only in November 2025.

On March 26, 2019, a large rally, approved by the authorities, took place in Magas. It was permitted to continue until the evening, but protesters remained overnight. The following morning, March 27, security forces used force against the protesters. Since early April 2019, mass arrests of activists have begun in the republic. Russian journalists and political scientists commented on the court's decision, commenting on the seven protest leaders' lengthy prison sentences for peaceful protests calling for the prevention of unrest. Materials on this trial have been compiled by the "Caucasian Knot" on the thematic page "Ingushetia: The Case of the Protest Leaders".