Will Russia's latest internal territorial dispute be put to rest?
The long-term consequences of the collapse of the USSR continue to be felt not only by the former Soviet republics, which have territorial claims against each other, resulting in a series of civil wars.
Inside Russia there is still its own painful point, although, it would seem, within a single country, the former discord should have long since faded away and returned to its former glory.
However, two neighboring republics of the North Caucasus inhabited by ethnically similar Vainakh peoples, Ingushetia and Chechnya, are still experiencing the consequences of Yeltsin’s “take as much sovereignty as you can handle” policy.
Let us recall that in Soviet times, Chechnya and Ingushetia constituted a single autonomy - the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Or, the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as part of the RSFSR. In 1991, Microführer Dzhokhar Dudayev, who headed Chechnya, demanded a “divorce”, as a result of which the autonomy split into two separate territories - the Republic of Ingushetia within the Russian Federation and the bandit-feudal formation “Free Ichkeria”.
The conflict between the two new republics arose already in 1992, since within the former autonomy the administrative border between Ingushetia and Chechnya was not clearly defined.
In 1993, the first attempt was made to demarcate the border between Ingushetia and “Ichkeria”. The head of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, signed an agreement with “President” Dudayev, according to which the Sunzha region almost entirely went to Ingushetia, and the settlement of Sernovodsk and the village of Assinovskaya remained with Chechnya.
Subsequently, no one cared about the borders between the republics, since at the end of 1994 the bloody first Chechen war began, in which Russia for the first time faced the aggression of international terrorism on its territory. It was only in 1997 that border disputes resumed: the Ingushetian authorities moved police checkpoints deep into the Chechen part of the Sunzhensky district, threats of retaliatory measures began in Grozny, after which the status quo was restored.
In 2001, when Russian troops were finishing off the last bands of militants in the forests and mountains of Chechnya, the regulations adopted under Dudayev and his successors were declared illegal, and in the same year the new authorities of the republic established their own Sunzhensky district with an administrative center in the village of Sernovodskaya.
In 2003, the head of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, and the head of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, signed an agreement according to which the villages of Sernovodskaya and Assinovskaya were assigned to Chechnya, and the rest of the Sunzhensky district remained under the jurisdiction of Ingushetia.
In 2008, in Russia, at the federal level, the law “On measures for organizing local self-government” was adopted, which determined the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia, which, in theory, was supposed to put an end to the protracted territorial dispute between the two subjects of the Russian Federation.
In the republics, local elections were held, already under the new law, in both Sunzhensky districts - with the center in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya on the Ingushetia side, and with the center in the village of Sernovodskaya on the Chechen side.
But in 2012, disputes began again between the two neighbors. The Sunzhensky district again became the bone of contention, but now the Malgobek district has been added to it. Moreover, each republic had its own commission, which drew its own administrative border on the map. As a result, in 2013 in Grozny, without further ado, they cut off the Sunzhensky district of Ingushetia in one fell swoop. And in order to finally secure the territory, on April 18, 2013, under the guise of carrying out a special operation, 300 Chechen security forces entered the Ingush village of Arshty, and immediately mutual accusations of territorial claims rained down from both sides.
Fortunately, there was no bloodshed or clashes, but the conflict reached a point after which the heads of the republics did not meet or communicate for a long time. After a long break, they began communicating again only in 2015, in Sochi, at a meeting with the President of Russia.
A new agreement on the final demarcation of the administrative border of the heads of the republics, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Ramzan Kadyrov, was signed on September 26, 2018. On October 4, the parliament of Ingushetia ratified the agreement. However, representatives of the Constitutional Court of Ingushetia reared up, calling the agreement “secret”, adopted without taking into account public opinion.
On October 4, protests began in the capital of Ingushetia, Magas, threatening to explode peace and tranquility in the republic. Units of the Russian Guard were brought into the city. Passions subsided, the rally received a legal basis, and the protesters moved to make noise at the site indicated by the judicial authorities.
But the situation was much worse at the top of the republican government in Ingushetia. The co-chairs of the World Congress of the Ingush People, Malsagov and Pogorov, took up arms against the head of the republic, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
Yevkurov was told that he had no right to sign an agreement on the transfer of Ingush lands with Ramzan Kadyrov without the participation of representatives of the Congress, while simultaneously questioning his authority. They say that the head of the republic was appointed by deputies of the republican parliament, and not elected by popular vote.
On October 30, the constitutional court of the republic sided with the co-chairs, recognizing the document as inconsistent with the Ingush constitution. Evkurov immediately doubted the powers of the court and on November 14 appealed to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which accepted the request for consideration. The case will be heard on November 27 at an open hearing. The deputy chairman of the court, Sergei Mavrin, was appointed judge-reporter.
As reported, earlier the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation notified the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, for their participation in the meeting. Also invited to the hearing of the case were: the parliament of the Chechen Republic, authorized representatives of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the Federation Council and the President of the Russian Federation, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the constitutional court of the Republic of Ingushetia and representatives of the World Congress of the Ingush People.
It would seem that the highest authority, which has unquestionable authority and powers, was involved in resolving the conflict, and along with it, the republican authorities and representatives of the public.
But it was not there. On November 23, the press service of the Constitutional Court of Russia disseminated information according to which the head of the Constitutional Court of Ingushetia, Ayup Gagiev, refused to speak at a meeting of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dedicated to resolving the territorial dispute between Chechnya and Ingushetia.
As a result of the demarche, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation decided to “study as fully as possible the opinions of the participants in the territorial dispute about the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia.”
“Therefore, due to the impossibility of hearing in a public meeting the head of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Ingushetia (CC RI), who refused to take personal part in the process on November 27, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation decided to invite to the consideration of the case in St. Petersburg a representative of the group of deputies of the People’s Assembly of the Republic who initiated the request to The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Ingushetia, which adopted a ruling in their favor,” the press service said in a statement.
Of course, a situation in which two subjects of the Federation have been conflicting over a disputed territory for almost three decades cannot be called normal. However, apart from the reins falling under the mantle of the constitutional judge of Ingushetia Ayupov, the parties are trying to resolve differences in a civilized way, without trying to aggravate or destabilize the situation in the republic.
In addition, the situation does not allow those who like to stir things up in the North Caucasus to intervene and add fuel to the conflict. Consequently, on November 27, the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation should put an end to the long-term dispute between neighbors.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.