Cossacks and Moscow Still Disagree Over What It Means to Be a Cossack (The Jamestown Foundation)

Cossacks in Ingushetia have appealed to the Terek Cossack Force to accept them as members. The latter is expected to make its decision by this fall. The Cossacks of Ingushetia have asked to become members of the Terek Cossack force for years, so far unsuccessfully. According to Cossack traditions, Cossacks are supposed to belong to the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ingush, as Muslims, were rejected. In 2013, Vasily Svetlichny became the head of the newly established Sunzha Cossack District in Ingushetia. According to Svetlichny, the Sunzha Cossack District has only about 300 members, and its small size disqualifies it from becoming an officially registered Cossack organization, according to existing Russian laws (Kavkazskaya Politika, July 5). However, a much larger Cossack organization in Ingushetia made up of ethnic Ingush may be behind Svetlichny. Earlier, on February 3, Cossacks from Stavropol met Ingushetia’s governor, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and offered to cooperate with the Ingush Cossacks, signaling that Muslim Cossacks may be acceptable to some (Nazaccent.ru, February 4).

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=45626&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=e4ce1426e9a1fea3f15bd631a2cced11#.V4efVNKLTIU