Ingushetia (; ; ), officially the Republic of Ingushetia, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country of Georgia to its south; and borders the Russian republics of North Ossetia–Alania and Chechnya to its west and east, respectively; while having a border with Stavropol Krai to its north. It also is one of the least-populated republics of Russia at under 500,000. Its capital is the town of Magas, while the largest city is Nazran. At 4,000 square km, in terms of area, the republic is the smallest of Russia's non-city federal subjects. It was established on June 4, 1992, after the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was split in two. The republic is home to the indigenous Ingush, a people of Nakh ancestry. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 509,541.Estimation of the number of resident population by constituent entities of the Russian Federation Largely due to the insurgency in the North Caucasus, Ingushetia remains one of the poorest and most unstable regions of Russia. Although the violence has died down in recent years, the insurgency in neighboring Chechnya has occasionally spilled into Ingushetia. 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), anti-government protests, attacks on soldiers and officers, Russian military excesses and a deteriorating human rights situation. Etymology The name Ingushetia is derived from the ancient village Angusht, which was renamed Tarskoye and transferred to North Ossetia in 1944 after the deportation of 23 February 1944, "Operation Lentil". The Ingush ethnic group The Ingush, a nationality group indigenous to the Caucasus, mostly inhabit Ingushetia. According to the linguist Johanna Nichols, the Ingush speak the Ingush language, which is different from Chechen but is placed into the same language group due to the passive bilingualism of the Ingush people. The Ingush are, to a great extent, traditionally a classless society based on a clan system and unwritten law. Approximately 350 clans live in Ingushetia today. Every clan, and each clan member, are viewed as equal. Unlike the neighboring nations in the Caucasus (excluding Chechens), the Ingush rarely had social superiors or inferiors. The history of the Ingush is closely related to that of the Chechens. Byzantine