Evkurov treats signing of agreement on Chechen-Ingush border as spontaneous

The border agreement was signed "spontaneously", against the conflict over road works, Yunus-Bek Evkurov, the head of Ingushetia, has stated today, stressing that the document had been prepared in advance and without any Moscow's participation.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 26, Ramzan Kadyrov and Yunus-Bek Evkurov signed the agreement on securing the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia. Residents of Ingushetia took to mass actions in protest against the transfer of lands.

Mr Evkurov has explained today in his interview to the RBC (RosBusinessConsulting) that the topic of fixing the Ingush-Chechen border between Ingushetia and Chechnya had been regularly raised by republics' heads since 2009-2010.

According to his story, the talks were triggered, "among other things," by the discontent of residents of Ingushetia, who discovered a road bulldozer belonging to the "Chechenavtodor" in the border area with Chechnya.

"The road that ran to the village of Arshty across the Ingush territory was on the balance accounting of the "Chechenavtodor". When the Chechen road machines began building this road, for some reason everyone decided that Chechens had entered Ingushetia," said Evkurov.

According to his story, the signing of the agreement was not demonstrative. "Firstly, this is not a window show; secondly, it happened spontaneously: neither I, nor Ramzan [Kadyrov] had even thought about it," the head of Ingushetia has stated.

He has also noted that some officials and public figures knew about it; and preparations for signing the document were intensively held during a month before the meeting with Kadyrov.

Mr Evkurov has also stressed that federal authorities and other intermediaries have nothing to do with the final agreement.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 12, 2018 at 07:04 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.