Kremlin Doesn’t Care a Lot about Demarcation of North Caucasus Borders but Does about Kadyrov’s Threatening Stance, Oreshkin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 20 – The Kremlin is not particularly interested in the demarcation process in the North Caucasus, Moscow political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin says; but it is very much concerned that Ramzan Kadyrov is using threats to expand his republic and that these threats are creating problems not only in the region but for Moscow.

            As a result, the analyst continues, it has decided on steps to rein the Chechen leader in, most recently by putting out the word via Daghestani parliamentarians that the process of its border demarcation with Chechnya would be put on hold for a year, thus giving Makhachkala a victory and slowing Kadyrov down (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/336843/).

            Kadyrov “by various methods is trying to broaden his spheres of influence. But now the federal center has decided to put the brakes on him.” In response, the Chechen leader has lashed out at the Daghestanis who announced the delay Moscow wanted.  “It is strange,” Oreshkin says, “that he did not blame the US on this issue.”

            “But if the noise had been raised by only two or three dozen people in Daghestan,” the analyst continues, Moscow’s plenipotentiary “would not have interfered in the process. This is a serious territorial conflict in which not only ordinary citizens but elites are involved. The Kremllin doesn’t think that the problem involves only a small group of people in Daghestan.” 

            Kadyrov obviously still believes that he can get his way in Moscow, “but not in this case,” Oreshkin says. 

            Meanwhile, in Ingushetia, there were two developments today: On the one hand, the 93-year-old father of Akhmed Pogorov issued a video appeal to Vladimir Putin  asking him to intervene and come to the aid of Ingush protesters (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/336872/  and doshdu.com/2019/06/20/отец-ахмеда-погорова-сообщил-путину-о/).

            And on the other, the Ingush Supreme Court refused to overrule the court of first instance and left in place the fines it had levied against Malsag Uzhakhov, the head of the Union of Teips of Ingushetia (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/336857/).