Nov 22 (Reuters) - The tiny republic of Ingushetia is at the heart of mounting violence across the North Caucasus, on Russia's southern fringe. Its leader told Reuters on Sunday that widespread state corruption was fuelling an Islamist insurgency.

Following are key facts about the region:

POVERTY

Ingushetia is the smallest and poorest region in Russia, wedged between North Ossetia and Chechnya. The unemployment rate was estimated in March 2009 at over 50 percent. Over 90 percent of Ingushetia's revenue comes in subsidies from Moscow.

Desperate poverty and widespread corruption are at the very least a factor in fuelling an insurgency that is nominally about establishing Islamic rule.

Russian and Ingush officials say publicly that corruption has reached shocking levels, opening a gulf between the region's ruling class and its population of around half a million.

PRESIDENT

Ingush president Yunus-Bek Yevkurov came to power with Moscow's support last year to replace ex-KGB general Murat Zyazikov, appointed in 2002 with the backing of Vladimir Putin, then Russia's president.

Promising to tackle corruption, Yevkurov promptly sacked his entire government. He was almost killed in a suicide bomb attack in June. After recovering, the former paratrooper promised to wage a merciless war against terrorism and appealed to militants to lay down their arms. He has also proposed a poverty reduction programme, financed by Moscow, in a bid to curb discontent.

REBELLION

Russian special forces have been fighting rebels in Ingushetia since 2002.

Around 90 people died in a rebel attack on the city of Nazran in 2004. Last August, a suicide bomber killed 25 people and wounded over 100 at a police headquarters in Nazran, the bloodiest attack to hit the North Caucasus since 2005.

NEIGHBOURS

The Soviet Union lumped ethnically close Ingushetia and Chechnya together. But after its collapse in 1991, Chechnya declared independence and Ingushetia chose to become a republic within Russia.

Relations with neighbouring North Ossetia are strained. Paramilitary groups fought a brief war in 1992 over a disputed district. Hundreds died and thousands became refugees.

Ingushetia's president from 1992 to 2001, Ruslan Aushev, steered it away from the conflict in Chechnya, where rebels fought federal forces in two wars from 1994.

During the second Chechen war, which began in 1999, Ingushetia was the destination for thousands of Chechen refugees.

STATUS

* Ingushetia is one of 21 republics within Russia and has nominal autonomy with its own president, parliament and constitution. Its main religion is Sufi Islam.

(Writing by Moscow bureau; Editing by Dominic Evans and Kevin Liffey) (( For an interview with Yevkurov, click on [ID:nGEE5AL09K]

For a FACTBOX on Yevkurov, click on [ID:nGEE5AL0BK] ((Moscow bureau, +7 495 775 1242))

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