Grozny Backs Down on Map Showing Border Change with Daghestan after Bloggers There Complain

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 11 – When the Chechen parliament posted a new map showing the republic’s acquisition of territory from Ingushetia as part of the accord between Yunu-Bek Yevkurov and Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic legislature also shifted the border with Daghestan, adding 11.4 square kilometers to Chechnya even though there has been no agreement on that.

            Bloggers in Daghestan noticed the discrepancy and complained, and Grozny has no modified the map on its website, giving back most but not all of the territory Grozny claimed in the original version, an indication of just how sensitive any shift in borders among republics in the North Caucasus is.

            When the Daghestani bloggers noticed what Grozny had done, the map became a cause celebre in the media there. (See among others kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/327768/, censury.net/regions/19114-chast-dagestana-vklyuchena-v-territoriyu-chechni.html,  

riaderbent.ru/v-dagestane-obratili-vnimanie-na-rashozhdeniya-granits-respubliki-s-chechnyoj.html and chernovik.net/content/lenta-novostey/chechnya-vernula-dagestanu-zemli-no-ne-vse).

            That Grozny took this provocative step reflects Kadyrov’s belief that he and no one else will be backed by the powers that be in Moscow; but the fact that he has now backed down suggests that other republics are going to be even more attentive to maps  Grozny puts out – and perhaps those issued by other republics as well.

            The most important consequence of this action, however, may be that it will add to suspicions in Ingushetia and possibly in Moscow that Kadyrov and his republic are engaged in a kind of mini-imperialism and thus may prove even less willing than most expect in giving their agreement to the already controversial border deal between Chechnya and Ingushetia.