Chechen Issue in Daghestan Heats Up, Threatening New Conflict There and with Grozny

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 4 – In 2018, the ethnic Chechens in Daghestan, with the support of both Grozny and Moscow, were officially promised that their region inside that republic, one that was disbanded when Stalin deported the Chechens in 1944, would be restored by 2025. But Makhachkala has dragged its feet and even allowed more non-Chechens to move into that area.

            Now, fearful that both Makhachkala and Moscow are going to renege on their promises, the Chechens of Daghestan are demanding that at least the republic government end the privatization of land there lest non-Chechens acquire it and change the ethnic mix of what is now the Aukh region (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/397741).

            Unless Moscow puts pressure on Makhachkala to take at least this step, the Chechens of Daghestan are likely to be radicalized and Grozny’s Ramzan Kadyrov is likely to intervene in one way or another in support of them, possibly triggering conflict between Chechnya and Daghestan that could be even more explosive than what occurred in Ingushetia after 2018.

            For background on the long-running problems of the Chechens of Daghestan and the ways in which both Grozny and Moscow have been involved, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/04/moscow-backs-restoration-of-chechen.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/10/kadyrov-aspires-to-annex-far-more-of.html,  windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/01/kadyrov-backs-down-on-changing-chechen.html and https://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/12/chechen-territorial-ambitions.html.