Police in Magas are investigating a large fight involving foreign students. According to the Telegram channel Sapa Kavkaz, five Indian nationals are suspected of assaulting four of their fellow Indian citizens.
The incident reportedly took place on the evening of Monday, 27 October, on a riverbank, Sapa Kavkaz said. That same evening, four young men with bruises and contusions sought medical assistance at the Ingush Republican Clinical Hospital. All participants in the conflict are Indian citizens aged between 20 and 24, residing in a dormitory of Ingush State University.
Police are considering opening a criminal case under the article relating to assault. The Ingushetia Interior Ministry has not yet released an official statement on the incident.
Similar altercations involving foreign students have been reported in other regions of Russia in recent years, including Daghestan, Arkhangelsk, Krasnodar Krai, and Tatarstan, after which local police strengthened inspections in student dormitories.
According to Russia’s Education Ministry, the number of foreign students in Russian universities has increased by more than 26,000 over the past three years. From 2019 to 2024, the number of students from China, India, Egypt, and Iran more than doubled.
In 2024, Russia hosted around 376,000 international students from 170 countries — 40,000 more than in 2023. Of these, 220,000 were citizens of countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), with international students making up 8.5% of the total student population in Russia.
At Ingush State University, over 100 Indian students were enrolled in 2023, most of them studying medicine. Some attend lectures remotely due to the limited capacity for in-person learning.
Russia’s federal budget has allocated over ₽10.6 billion ($133 million) in 2026 for the education of foreign students at Russian universities under the government quota. Funding is expected to rise to more than ₽27.2 billion ($342 million) in 2027 and ₽54.3 billion ($683 million) in 2028 — totalling over ₽92 billion ($1,1 billion) across the three years, according to the draft federal budget for 2026–2028 published in the State Duma database on 1 October 2025.
Elizaveta Chukharova
