Moscow Plans to Have Russian Guards Man Republic Border Posts in North Caucasus

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 5 – While Russian officials constantly insist that the borders between the federal subjects in the North Caucasus (and elsewhere) are purely administrative, Moscow not only opposes any effort by republic officials, including Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov, to take them down but also plans to put officers and men of the Russian Guard to ensure their operation.

            Moscow officials justify this approach by saying that it is necessary to prevent radicals from moving from one republic to another, an argument that at least on occasion is not without merit; but by restricting passage from one republic to another (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/337515/), the central authorities are producing three unintended results.

            First, they are elevating the importance of these borders in the minds of the people of the region, making any effort to redraw the lines even more explosive than it was before. In Soviet times, these borders were generally ignored, one of the reasons that local people cared little about them. As they become more significant, people there will care more about any change.

            Second, such border posts not only restrict the movement of potential or real terrorists but of ordinary people as well. Not only will that limit cross-border trade, disrupting life in border areas, but it will cause ever more people within each of the republics to focus on republic centers for their trade, something that will intensify republic identities.

            And third, given that the block posts that Moscow is now building up between republics within the Russian Federation will increasingly resemble border posts between those republics and neighboring countries like Azerbaijan, ever more North Caucasians will be ready to listen to those who argue that their republics should be independent as well.

            Sensitive to these risks and also aspiring to an even greater leadership role beyond the borders of his republic, Chechnya’s Kadyrov called last December for eliminating all such posts along inter-republic borders. In doing so, he dismissed Moscow’s arguments that the posts prevent extremists from crossing from one republic to another.

            According to the Chechen leader, such people aren’t going to show up at the border posts; they are going to go around them – and there are many places where they can cross from one republic to another without having to show any papers.

            Kadyrov’s position was not unreasonable, but many other republic leaders immediately came out in opposition saying that the border posts are not just about stopping the movement of terrorists but also about elevating the status of the republics. The border conflicts between Chechnya, on the one hand, and Ingushetia and Daghestan, on the other, highlight this.

            In another Ingushetia development today, Yury Nesterov of St. Petersburg, has launched an online petition calling on Russian officials to free all political prisoners in Ingushetia.  It is described at zamanho.com/?p=10207 and can be signed at change.org/p/генеральному-прокурору-рф-ю-я-чайке-освободить-из-под-ареста-лидеров-общественного-протеста-в-ингушетии).