The participants of hearings in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation complained of the officials’ reluctance to settle land dispute

The participants of the hearings in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation “Land question in the Caucasus: from solving conflicts to preventing them” which passed off on December, 19, declared that local officials often refused to settle land dispute in the regions of Northern Caucasus.

Representatives of the President’s Administration, national organizations of the Caucasus, heads of administration of districts and settlements of the republics of Northern Caucasus and experts on the Caucasus were invited to take part in the hearings.

Representatives of the peoples living in North Caucasian Federal Okrug: the Lezghin, the Dargwa, the Karachais, the Kumyks, the Nogais, the Laks, the Kabardians, the Balkar, the Ingush, the Ossetians, the Chechens and representatives of the Cossacks took part in the hearings.

According to Rosstat (Russian Statistics Agency), North Caucasian Federal Okrug is the only federal okrug where the rural population size surpasses the urban one and makes 50,8%. This conclusion was made based on the results of the census of 2010.

In the participants’ opinion, it means that land questions in the Caucasus are not only questions of borders and historical memory but also questions of land use and the lives of the people who use land for its primordial, i.e. agricultural purposes.

Representatives of the peoples of Northern Caucasus spoke about the problems they encountered in solving land question in their districts and declared the officials’ “reluctance or inability” to “hear fair demands of the peoples who have inhabited these lands since the beginning of time”.