The long-awaited agreement on the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia means the end or at least the cessation of a long-standing territorial dispute between the neighboring republics – apparently at the insistence of Moscow. This political solution to not only a territorial but also a political dispute, the continuation or an unequal decision in favor of one of the parties was fraught with a chain reaction in the Caucasus and other regions of Russia.

On Wednesday, the heads of Chechnya and Ingushetia, Ramzan Kadyrov and Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, signed an agreement to establish the administrative border between the republics, which had not been clearly established since the division of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR after the collapse of the USSR. According to the agreement, part of the territory of the Sunzhensky District of Ingushetia was transferred to Chechnya, and Ingushetia received an area of the same size in the Malgobek District. Kadyrov and Yevkurov emphasized that the new border will not divide, but, on the contrary, will unite the fraternal peoples.

According to Yevkurov, the parties only fixed the existing border, and the changes will not affect populated areas and the interests of their residents: "The only adjustments we made were at the bottom, on the flat part, where we ceded exactly square to square, meter to meter, to each other, taking into account the need to align the border and straighten one wedge" (quoted by TASS). This reservation is of fundamental importance: on the day the agreement was signed, unauthorized rallies against the transfer of part of the territory to Chechnya took place in Ingushetia, and the police used force against the protesters.

Territorial disputes between Russian regions

North Ossetia and Ingushetia. Subject of the dispute: Prigorodny District. The district was transferred to North Ossetia in 1944 after the deportation of the Ingush and Chechens; a significant portion of the Ingush consider the transfer illegal. In the fall of 1992, the dispute escalated into an armed conflict between the Ossetians and Ingush; more than 500 people were killed on both sides. Now the Prigorodny District is the territory of North Ossetia.Ivanovo and Nizhny Novgorod Oblasts. Subject of the dispute: Sokolsky District. After the filling of the Gorky Reservoir in the 1950s, the district was cut off from the Ivanovo Oblast by water. In 1993, 80% of residents voted in favor of the transfer at a local referendum. In February 1994, the Federation Council approved the transfer of the Sokolsky District from the Ivanovo Oblast to the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.Moscow and Moscow Oblast. Subject of the dispute: Sheremetyevo, Shcherbinka and the Moscow Ring Road. Since the mid-1990s, the two regions have been disputing several territories: lands adjacent to the outer border of the Moscow Ring Road, the territory of Sheremetyevo Airport and in Shcherbinka. By decisions of the highest courts in 2006 and 2008, Sheremetyevo was left to the Moscow Region, and the lands in Shcherbinka to Moscow. The issue of the areas adjacent to the Moscow Ring Road was resolved during the expansion of Moscow at the expense of the region in 2011.Kalmykia and Astrakhan Region. Subject of the dispute: Black Lands. Kalmykia laid claim to 390,000 hectares of pastures on the border of the regions, citing the fact that these lands were divided between neighboring regions after the deportation of the Kalmyks in 1943. In January 2003, the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court ruled that these territories belong to the Astrakhan Region.Amur Region and the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAO). Subject of the dispute: the village of Zarechnoye. Situated on the border of the regions, the village was provided with communications, electricity and transport from the JAO, but administratively belonged to the Amur Region due to a cartographic error. In February 2007, the Federation Council approved its transfer from the Amur Region to the JAO.Leningrad Region and Saint Petersburg. Subject of the dispute: the villages of Ilyichevo, Reshetnikovo, Sertolovo, Chernaya Rechka. Residents of border villages of the Vyborg district voted in a local referendum in July 1994 to join St. Petersburg. The Leningrad region leadership did not support the initiative.

The dispute between the neighbors is a consequence of the division of the once united autonomous republic within the RSFSR in June 1992, when Ingushetia separated from Chechnya, which was drifting towards independence. In August 1993, the first president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, and the future leader of the separatists, Dzhokhar Dudayev, signed an agreement under which the Sunzhensky District went to Ingushetia, and the settlements of Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya went to Chechnya. In March 2003, after the pacification of Chechnya, the agreement was repeated by the new leaders of the republics, Murat Zyazikov and Akhmat Kadyrov. In 2008, the State Duma adopted the law "On measures to organize local self-government in the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic," which obliged the republican authorities to establish the boundaries of municipal entities by March 2009. Then two Sunzhensky districts with the same name appeared in Chechnya and Ingushetia.

This, however, did not put an end to the territorial dispute. In August 2012, Kadyrov demanded that a clear border with Ingushetia be drawn and stated that its absence would lead to the seizure of Chechen lands. "Taking advantage of the difficult situation for the Chechen people, villages and entire districts of ours have been seized <...> the appetite is growing, and the process of seizing more and more territories of Chechnya is underway. If someone does not understand human language, we will not allow jokes," Kadyrov threatened at the time. Yevkurov asked Kadyrov to refrain from making statements about revising the borders, but he soon stated that he had archival documents confirming that part of the Sunzhensky and Malgobeksky districts of Ingushetia belonged to Chechnya. The then plenipotentiary representative in the North Caucasus Federal District, Alexander Khloponin, asked to stop public disputes about the borders, but in early 2013, Chechnya adopted a republican law that included several Ingush settlements in the Chechen Sunzhensky District. Yevkurov then stated that the Sunzhensky District of Ingushetia is an integral part of the republic. In 2013, Chechnya's claims to the Ingush settlement of Arshty became the cause of clashes between security forces. In August 2018, the public organization "Opora Ingushetia" reported the start of work by Chechen builders in Ingushetia near the administrative border.

The administrative-territorial dispute had a political background. Kadyrov has repeatedly demonstrated that he claims to be the defender of the interests of the people and the gatherer of lands, but also strives to become the informal leader of the North Caucasus. In turn, the local opposition often accused Yevkurov of being too accommodating on territorial issues, notes Konstantin Kazenin, a senior research fellow at RANEPA, so the head of Ingushetia had to demonstrate a willingness to defend its interests. The center found itself in a difficult situation, where an unresolved dispute threatens to maintain tension, and its decision in favor of one of the parties - a chain reaction of territorial claims caused by long-standing interethnic, interreligious and economic disputes. In the North Caucasus, where borders have been repeatedly redrawn for political reasons, this is fraught with serious unrest.

In this situation, Moscow probably influenced the leaders of both republics to speed up the agreement and helped find a solution that would suit both sides, Kazenin believes. The presence of the plenipotentiary representative in the North Caucasus Federal District, Alexander Matovnikov, at the signing ceremony demonstrated the center's interest in ending the litigation between the two regions and their prominent leaders. Now it is important that both Kadyrov and Yevkurov be able to present the agreement not only as a personal success, but also as a victory for their peoples.

The art of cutting boundaries