Russian ‘peacekeeping’ troops provided cover for the first post-Soviet ethnic cleansing

Evidence

As one outside commentator described it: “In November 1992, Ingush villages in Ossetia were surrounded and shelled by Russian tanks. Those who survived the bombing were killed or taken away. The massacre was carried out by Ossetian OMON [special police] squads, but Russian troops sent to the region ‘to keep the peace’ provided their cover.” It was, The Economist reported, “hard to comprehend that so much destruction had taken place in less than a week.” This was “the first ethnic-cleansing operation in the Russian federation.” — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 764

Categorization

• QUESTION: The attribution of this massacre — whether it was organized Ossetian paramilitaries shielded by Russian forces vs. Russian forces acting directly — is contested; worth checking the fuller record.
• SHARE: Would send to someone following contemporary Chechen or North Caucasus politics — this 1992 Ossetian-Ingush episode is the often-forgotten precursor to the Chechen wars.