Mass Protests Now Likely in Daghestan as Chechnya Again Pushes for Border Demarcation

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 7 – In the spring of 2019, plans to delimit and then demarcate the border between Chechnya and Daghestan not only sparked protests in the latter among those who believed Grozny was taking their lands but also led to the suspension of the program despite federal deadlines.

            But now two things have happened that could easily trigger a new round of conflict between Daghestan and Chechnya. Chechen Parliamentary Speaker Magomed Daudov has called for completing demarcation (instagram.com/p/CA_L_HCl4UD/?igshid=s701pqrqzvy0), and unknown persons have already put some markers up (mk.ru/politics/2020/06/07/chechnya-i-dagestan-viseli-na-voloske-komu-nuzhen-konflikt-na-kavkaze.html).

            Daudov says that Chechnya does not have claims to the territory of a fraternal republic but that at the same time will claim by all legal means its own territory … The lack of resolution of this issue may lead to inter-ethnic anger,” a conclusion echoed by analysts in the region and in Moscow given what happened 15 months ago (akcent.site/mneniya/8173).

            Moskovsky komsomolets recounts what happened in early 2019 – for background on that, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/08/on-border-issues-chechnya-united-but.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/07/russian-forces-now-keeping-chechens-and.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/06/chechen-daghestan-land-swaps-wont-solve.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/06/kremlin-doesnt-care-lot-about.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/06/moscow-which-had-pushed-for-border.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/06/agora-hopes-to-achieve-in-daghestan.html, and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/06/chechen-daghestan-border-controversy.html -- provides new details on why Daghestan was caught flat-footed then, and suggests, thing shaven’t improved and that the situation could explode now.

            The paper cites Shamil Khadulayev, president of the NGO Coordination Council in Daghstan, on what happened and why it could easily happen again. He says that Makhachkala was unprepared for border talks, tried to keep them too confidential, and as a result, rumors led to clashes.

            That is what others have said as well, but then the NGO chief argues that the reason this was so and remains so is that the republic’s land and property minister was an outsider from Moscow, Yekaterina Tolstikova, who not only didn’t know the history of the land issue but disordered the ministry’s work by prompting many longtime employees to leave.

            In the North Caucasus in general and in Daghestan in particular, many people believe that their problems arise in the first instance from the appointment of outsiders who don’t know local conditions or have the best interests of the local population at heart. Khadulayev’s comment will only add fuel to this fire.

            And a new round of mass protests seems likely in Daghestan if Moscow allows the demarcation process to go ahead. But of course, if the center intervenes against that process, Chechnya and its powerful head Ramzan Kadyrov will be outraged. And that means the Kremlin faces yet another Hobson’s choice, one largely of its own making.