[4] Largely due to the insurgency in the North Caucasus, Ingushetia remains one of the poorest and most unstable regions of Russia.

According to Human Rights Watch in 2008, the republic has been destabilized by corruption, a number of high-profile crimes (including kidnapping and murder of civilians by government security forces),[13] anti-government protests, attacks on soldiers and officers, Russian military excesses and a deteriorating human rights situation.

[30][31] On 29 June 1832, the Russian Baron Rozen reported in letter No.42 to count Chernishev that "on the 23rd of this month I exterminated eight Ghalghaj (Ingush) villages.

He conquered Dagestan, Chechnya, and then attacked Ingushetia hoping to convert the Ingush people to Islam, thus gaining strategic allies.

Renamed Ingush villages and towns:[34] Following Imam Shamil's repeated losses by the end of the Caucasian War, the Russians and Chechens unified their forces.

In another letter from General Ermolov to Lanski (dated 12 January 1827) on the impossibility of forceful Christianization of the Ingush, Yermolov wrote: "This nation, the most courageous and militaristic among all the highlanders, cannot be allowed to be alienated ..." The last organized rebellion (the so-called "Nazran insurrection") in Ingushetia occurred in 1858 when 5,000 Ingush launched an attack against Russian forces, but lost to the latter's superior number.

In his memoirs, general Denikin wrote [40] "Ingush people are the least numerous, most welded, and strongly martial organization.

The moral of the appearance was defined long ago in Russian text-books of geography, "the chief occupation – animal husbandry and robbery  ..." The last one of the two reached special art in the society.

They robbed all the neighbors: the Cossacks and Ossetians in the name of "correcting historical errors" for a shortage of land, the Bolsheviks – in return for their services, Vladikavkaz citizens – for their helplessness, and the Kabardins – just out of habit.

An exchange of diplomatic notes then took place between the head of the German Extraordinary Delegation, General von Lossov, and the North Caucasian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bammat, resulting in the de facto recognition by Germany of the independence of the Northern Caucasus.

Deprived of the opportunity to earn their bread in an honest way, the Ingush lived by robbery and raids on the Cossack lands.

The fighting for the Malgobek was so intense that the small town was captured and recaptured four times until the Germans finally retreated.

American historian Norman Naimark writes:[53][54][55] Troops assembled villagers and townspeople, loaded them onto trucks – many deportees remembered that they were Studebakers, fresh from Lend-Lease deliveries over the Iranian border – and delivered them at previously designated railheads.

The Prague Watchdog claims that "in the early years of their exile about half of the Chechens and Ingush died from hunger, cold and disease".

Major rebel groups were led by Akhmed Khuchbarov, the Tsitskiev brothers, and an Ingush female sniper, Laisat Baisarova.

[59] American professor Johanna Nichols, who specializes in Chechen and Ingush philology, provided the theory behind the deportation:[60] In 1944 the nationalities themselves were abolished and their lands resettled when the Chechen and Ingush, together with the Karachay-Balkar, Crimean Tatars, and other nationalities were deported en masse to Kazakhstan and Siberia, losing at least one-quarter and perhaps half of their population in transit.

(The reason, never clarified, seems to have been Stalin's wish to clear all Muslims from the main invasion routes in a contemplated attack on Turkey.

[71] Early in August 2008, the war between Georgia and South Ossetia broke out, in which the Russian Federation subsequently became involved.

[81] According to professor Johanna Nichols, in all the recorded history and reconstructable prehistory, the Ingush people have never undertaken battle except in defense.

On behalf of me, the royal court and the whole of the Russian army send our best regards to fathers, mothers, sisters, wives and brides of those brave sons of the Caucasus whose heroism paved the way for the destruction of German hordes.

Aside from a few incidents (including the killings of Ingush civilians by Russian soldiers), Ingushetia was largely kept out of the war by a determined policy of non-violence pursued by President Ruslan Aushev.

The first major rebel attack of the conflict, in which a military convoy was destroyed occurred in May 2000 and caused the deaths of 19 soldiers.

In response to a sharp escalation in attacks by insurgents since the summer of 2007,[84] Moscow sent in an additional 25,000 MVD and FSB troops, tripling the number of special forces in Ingushetia.

In the late 1920s – early 1930s the Soviet officials were eager to enforce the Chechen-Ingush merger as an "objective" and "natural" process.

The Soviet linguist Nikolay Yakovlev, who was a supporter of the merger, suggested that an inclusive name of "Veinakh" ("our people") had to be used for both the Chechens and Ingush.

According to his views, the rapid urbanization and rapprochement of the Chechens and Ingush within one and the same republic might encourage the formation of a common culture and language and the establishment of a unified "Veinakh" people.

The rise of the Russian Federation - and the 1991 Chechen Revolution - gave the Ingushetians the independence they vowed for and in 1992 the remainder of Checheno-Ingushstia became thus the Republic of Ingushtia.

During the 1990s, Ingushetia was ruled by its elected president Ruslan Aushev, a former Soviet general and hero of the war in Afghanistan.

The local government is considering the development of tourism; however, this is problematic due to the uneasy situation in the republic itself and the proximity of some conflict zones.

However, Ingushetia continues to remain as one of Russia's poorest republics, largely due to the ongoing conflict, corruption and civil disorders.