Russian Court Hears Ingush-Chechen Border Accord Dispute, as Protests Continue

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 27 – The Russian Constitutional Court, which is located in St. Petersburg where Ingush opponents of the border accord protested yesterday with some detained and beaten, held an open session on Yunus-Bek Yevkurov’s appeal to have Moscow declare that accord and the way in which he organized its ratification completely legal.

            Representatives of the Russian government said that that court had the exclusive right to hear such a case and that its ruling would be final.  But opponents of the accord, some of whom spoke and others of whom were excluded from the courtroom and kept from speaking, remained vehemently opposed.

            The court for its part declared that a one-day hearing was sufficient and said that it would hold discussions and issue its findings at some point in the near future (kommersant.ru/doc/3813014,rbc.ru/politics/27/11/2018/5bfd31379a79475d8418be22?from=main, and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328419/).

            Meanwhile, in Nazran, Ingush opponents of the border accord staged a mass meeting at which they demanded not only that the border agreement with Chechnya be held invalid but that the border dispute with North Ossetia be revisited with the Prigorodny district being returned to them and Yevkurov being removed from office.

            The meeting was peaceful but was surrounded the entire time by a large number of siloviki (caucasustimes.com/ru/miting-v-ingushetii-ot-evkurova-do-prigorodnogo-rajona/, graniru.org/Politics/Russia/activism/m.273993.html, kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328432/, kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328427/, kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328428/ and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328437/).

            Meanwhile, there were three other important developments over the last 24 hours related to the border dispute:

·         The Congress of Chechens of Daghestan held a meeting at which it did not criticize Makhachkala but suggested that there should be moves toward the formation of a single North Caucasus federal subject within the Russian Federation (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/328409/).

·         A Magas court has imposed a draconian sentence on an Ingush opposition figure for supposedly illegally possessing weapons, an indication of what Yevkurov and Moscow may be planning for other opposition figures there in the future (kavkazr.com/a/29624135.html).

·         Barakh Chemurziyev, a leader of the Support for Ingushetia opposition movement, says that Yevkurov will be better off if the Russian court rules against what he has done and that it is entirely possible that Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov, not anticipating such a reaction to the September 26 agreement, may wish that it had never happened and that it would just all go away (gorod-812.ru/ingushskiy-narod-otstupat-ne-budet-evkurovu-luchshe-proigrat-v-ks-rossii/).