Kotiev: no joint Ossetian-Ingush post near Chermen yet

So far, there is no information about setting up a joint Ossetian-Ingush post on the Chermen Circle, said Akhmed Kotiev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic of Ingushetia. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of North Ossetia also does not confirm that the post near the village of Chermen can become a joint one, noting that regiments of the Russia's MIA, sent from different regions of the country are on duty there. In their turn, bloggers give varying estimates as to the importance of this checkpoint.

In her turn, Colonel Alla Akhpolova, the head of the division for information and PR of the MIA of North Ossetia, has confirmed that the Chermen block-post is maintained by regiments sent by the MIA of Russia from other regions of the country.

On October 23, the head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov held a sitting of the anti-terror commission and operative staff, where the main agenda point was the explosion triggered near the checkpoint near the village of Chermen on that very day. The republic's leader noted that on the eve of the memorial date of events of 1992 (the armed Ossetian-Ingush conflict, – note of the "Caucasian Knot"), attempts of aggravating interethnic relations are possible.

According to Evkurov, whose opinion is quoted by his official website, joint posts of law enforcement bodies stationed on pre-border bypass roads, inspection of all motor vehicles, organization of joint on duty groups at the Chermen checkpoint by employees of North Ossetia and Ingushetia, as well as strengthening of the service regime of law enforcers, make only a part of the required operative measures.

The police checkpoint KPP-105 in the western outskirt of the village of Chermen, Prigorodny District, on the border with Ingushetia exists from 1975; in the middle of the 1990s it was awarded the status of the federal post, because four roads link here – running from Beslan, Nazran, settlement of Maiskiy and village of Chermen.