‘Banal Corruption’ Reason Dagestan Refuses to Restore Chechen District There, Russian Investigative Committee Reports

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 10 – Moscow and Makhachkala have resisted demands by Chechens that they restore a Chechen district in Dagestan that was disbanded at the time of Stalin’s deportations that prompt Grozny to make territorial demands and otherwise destabilize Dagestan (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/03/moscow-and-makhachkala-risk-violence.html).

            But a new investigation by the Russian Investigative Committee finds that the real reason is “banal corruption,” the fact that Dagestani officials have made so much money by selling off under false pretexts land in what was at one time a Chechen region to members of other nationalities (akcent.site/novosti/35466).

            This finding almost certainly will trigger new protests by the Chechens of Dagestan that Makhachkala give way and restore the Aukh District, but it will lead to demands by other ethnic groups in that multi-national North Caucasus republic and further reduce public support for its Moscow-installed leadership.

            Consequently, what may appear to be only a minor bureaucratic finding has the potential to destabilize the eastern North Caucasus, a development that Moscow can hardly afford because almost all of its north-south trade now passes through that region and any violence would both reduce that flow and make it more difficult for Moscow to attract investments there as well.