Kadyrov's threats to seize land outrages Ingush social media users

Ramzan Kadyrov's words that he can take away the lands from Ingushetia that had passed to this republic under Djokhar Dudaev are backed up by the Kremlin, Ingush commentators in social networks believe. Many of them have treated the statement of the head of Chechnya as populism.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 11, the Chechen party was engaged in some earthworks on the bank of the Fortanga River, which separates Chechnya and Ingushetia. During the works, they diverted the river, which caused indignation in Ingushetia. Kadyrov has stated that in Ingushetia, a "bunch of provocateurs" had staged the protest against the works. In their turn, Kadyrov's critics have pointed out that Chechen authorities should have warned the Ingush party about the upcoming works in order to avoid unrest in the neighbouring republic.

Kadyrov's statement that he can seize the Ingush lands has outraged Ingush commentators.

"It is the will of Allah on everything, but if he tries to take the land away by force, he will pay a high price for it," the user Tuaregt wrote in the Telegram channel named "FortangaORG Chat".

The conflict took broke out amid the Ingush authorities' opposition to the transfer of a part of the Erzi Reserve to Chechnya in 2018. It ended up in the territory of Chechnya after the demarcation of the border. Chechnya plans to create its own nature reserve there, named "Daimokh". Magomed Evloev, the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Ingushetia, is against it.

The Kremlin will not admit any escalation of the Ingush-Chechen conflict, but such incidents could awaken the "dormant protest" in Ingushetia, Ruslan Kutaev, the head of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, and Alexei Malashenko, a political analyst, believe.