BORDER CHANGE PROPOSED.

On June 26, the website of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration, Chechenskaya Respublika, reported that “the authorities of Dagestan had approached the leadership of the Chechen Republic with an initiative to change the borders [of the two republics]…. The government of Dagestan proposed to Chechnya to swap territories–28,000 hectares of land from the Kizlyar, Tarumovsky and Nogaisky districts of Dagestan will be transferred to Chechnya in exchange for 25,000 hectares of Shelkovsky District of the Chechen Republic.” The pro-Moscow Chechen administration approved this proposal and then sent the plan to the non-elected upper chamber of the Russian parliament, the Council of Federation, for confirmation. No referendum was conducted among the populace of Chechnya or Dagestan concerning this swap of territories.