On November 11, Chechenavtodor carried out earthworks on the bank of the Fortanga River, alongside the border with Ingushetia. They took the river waters aside, which caused indignation in Ingushetia, both residents and officials. Ramzan Kadyrov said that the protest against the work was organised in Ingushetia by "a bunch of provocateurs who are trying to play the nationalist card," and also indicated that he was able to take Ingushetia lands that passed to the republic during the time of Dzhokhar Dudayev. This angered Ingush netizens, who believed that the Kremlin’s support was behind Kadyrov’s statements. Kadyrov's critics also pointed out that the Chechen authorities should have warned the Ingush side of the planned work.
By threatening to seise territories from Ingushetia, Ramzan Kadyrov is seeking pressure from the authorities of the neighbouring republic on those who are dissatisfied with the situation with the border, said political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin, economist Sergei Zhavoronkov and Caucasian scholar Akhmet Yarlykapov.
The Chechen authorities explained that the waters of Fortanga were diverted only temporarily to carry out bank protection works. The speaker of the Chechen parliament, Magomed Daudov, stressed that these works, in principle, could not affect the borderline with Ingushetia. He was supported by users of the Chechen segment of Instagram, who criticised Ingush for artificially escalating the conflict.
"Kadyrov imagines himself the head of the North Caucasus and decides how to behave in neighbouring republics. But it is not his formal business, what kind of protests are going on there in Ingushetia - in the neighbouring sovereign republic of Russia. He is thus trying to get pressure from the leadership of Ingushetia on the protesters in order to stop these actions," said political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin.
Kadyrov’s goal is to achieve the termination of the actions by putting pressure on the leadership of Ingushetia, said Sergei Zhavoronkov, a senior researcher at the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy.
“In his own words, he is trying to put pressure on the leadership of Ingushetia so that they, in turn, put pressure on the Ingush protesters. He needs to resolve the issue through the leadership of Ingushetia, just like the last time, when (the head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek) Yevkurov signed everything that was required of him. In this case, Kadyrov is trying to achieve similar things," Zhavoronkov told.
