"Russia's brutal counterinsurgency policies are antagonizing local residents. Far from ending the insurgency, ‘dirty war' tactics are likely to further destabilize the situation in Ingushetia and beyond in the North Caucasus." This is how Human Rights Watch (HRW) assesses the current situation in Ingushetia. In an extensive report the organization calls for Moscow to amend its counter-insurgency tactics and to put an end to impunity for a whole range of human rights violations, to avoid the "appalling abuses" that have characterized the conflict in Chechnya.

The report provides detailed evidence of the human rights abuses committed by security forces , including arbitrary detentions, acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions. HRW also emphasizes that in most cases there was no further investigation or the victims themselves were charged with insurgency-related offences.

Ingushetia is - after Chechnya - the most unstable republic in the troubled Northern Caucasus. A number of factors, including Islamic radicalism, anti-Russian sentiment, grave economic difficulties and a large number of refugees, are behind the current tension.

A few days ago, Ruslan Badalov, of the Chechen Committee of National Salvation, who was attending a human rights meeting in Finland, compared the current situation in Ingushetia to "the pre-war situation in the 1990s in the neighbouring Chechen Republic". Badalov cited the general lack of security in the country, daily acts of terrorism and civilian casualties as reasons why Ingushetia may now be considered "the hottest point of Northern Caucasus".

• HRW: Russia: Stop ‘Dirty War' Tactics in Ingushetia
• Caucasian Knot: Badalov: situation in Ingushetia looks like pre-war one in Chechnya
• Nationalia: Political instability threatens Ingushetia