Men gather at a construction site near an Ingush flag during a protest against the new land swap deal, agreed by the heads of the Russian regions of Ingushetia and Chechnya, in Ingushetia's capital Magas, Russia October 7, 2018. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov 

A man sits inside a damaged car at the site of a suicide bomb attack in the Malgobek district in the north of Ingushetia, August 19, 2012. A suicide bomber killed at least seven policemen attending the funeral of a colleague in Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Ingushetia, hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in nearby Dagestan province, killing one person. REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST) 

A man is seen inside a damaged car at the site of a suicide bomb attack in the Malgobek district in the north of Ingushetia, August 19, 2012. A suicide bomber killed at least seven policemen attending the funeral of a colleague in Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Ingushetia, hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in nearby Dagestan province, killing one person. REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST) 

A member of a security service works at the site of a suicide bomb attack in the Malgobek district in the north of Ingushetia, August 19, 2012. A suicide bomber killed at least seven policemen attending the funeral of a colleague in Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Ingushetia, hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in nearby Dagestan province, killing one person. REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST) 

People gather at the site of a suicide bomb attack in the Malgobek district in the north of Ingushetia, August 19, 2012. A suicide bomber killed at least seven policemen attending the funeral of a colleague in Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Ingushetia, hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in nearby Dagestan province, killing one person. REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST) 

People gather at the site of a suicide bomb attack in the Malgobek district in the north of Ingushetia, August 19, 2012. A suicide bomber killed at least seven policemen attending the funeral of a colleague in Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Ingushetia, hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in nearby Dagestan province, killing one person. REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST) 

Investigators work at the site of a suicide bomb attack in the Malgobek district in the north of Ingushetia, August 19, 2012. A suicide bomber killed at least seven policemen attending the funeral of a colleague in Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Ingushetia, hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in nearby Dagestan province, killing one person. REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST) 

Investigators work at the site of a suicide bomb attack in the Malgobek district in the north of Ingushetia, August 19, 2012. A suicide bomber killed at least seven policemen attending the funeral of a colleague in Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Ingushetia, hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in nearby Dagestan province, killing one person. REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST) 

Interior Ministry officers patrol a motorway from the town of Malgobek to Nazran in the Russian southern region of Ingushetia January 28, 2011. In the mainly Muslim North Caucasus, woodlands reaching up to Russia's mountainous southern border are haunted by rebels trying to carve out an Islamic state -- a hideout and home base for an insurgency the Kremlin has failed to quell or contain. Picture taken January 28, 2011. To match feature RUSSIA-INGUSHETIA/EXTREMISM REUTERS/Kazbek Basayev (RUSSIA - Tags: CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) 

Chechen refugee children stand by a fire set outside wagons where they live in Karabulak refugee camp in Ingushetia, December 10, 2000. Russia launched a military offensive against Chechen separatists in September 1999 and now claims to have control over nearly all of the region's territory. 

A Chechen family rests in a tent at the refugee camp Karabulak near the city of Nazran, October 30, 2000. [Russian troops formally control the territory of separatist Chechnya, but Russian soldiers and policemen die every week in rebel hit-and-run attacks and mine explosions. ] 

Chechen refugees walk amongst the tents in which they live in a refugee camp near the Ingush village of Karabulak October 5, 2000. Tens of thousands of refugees remain in makeshift shelters in Ingushetia as Moscow's year-old military operation in neighbouring Chechnya drags on. 

An elderly Chechen woman refugee reads to her grandson inside a tent at a refugee camp in Karabulak in Ingushetia, September 26, 2000. The refugees are preparing to spend a second winter in tent camps in Ingushetia, as Moscow's operation to rid neighbouring Chechnya of insurgents drags on, a year after Russian troops moved into the troubled North Caucasus region. 

Zalikhan (R), a 16-year-old Chechen refugee, prepares for her wedding at Sputnik refugee camp in Ingushetia, August 7, 2000. Russia said on Monday that a senior Chechen guerrilla had surrendered to its forces and the Kremlin heralded the move as a mark the rebels were tiring of the 11-month-old war. 

A Chechen refugee boy looks out of his tent holding a toy car at a refugee camp in Karabulak, Ingushetia on July 30, 2000. Russian forces intensified control of the roads in the rebel region of Chechnya on sunday, banning all heavy lorries from travelling except military transport, Interfax news agency said. 

Chechen refugee boys stand at a makeshift kitchen in Karabulak refugee camp in Ingushetia July 19. Russia's war in Chechnya raged on two fronts on Wednesday as the military attacked mountain rebel hideouts and the province's two Moscow-appointed Chechen leaders stepped up their private war of words. 

Chechen women walk along a path amongst tents in a refugee camp near the Ingushi town of Karabulak, near the border with rebel Chechnya, June 25. Russian aircraft flew 42 combat missions in Chechnya over the 24 hours to Monday, Interfax news agency reported, despite a pledge on Sunday by the commander of Russian troops there to halt air and artillery strikes. 

A young Chechen boy watches food being handed out as he waits for his share in the Sputnik refugee camp near Sleptsovsk in Ingushetia June 18. Russian news agencies reported on Saturday that a Russian policeman was killed when gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint near the Chechen capital Grozny, the latest attack in the region that Moscow nominally controls, but where vows by rebel guerrillas to wage a partisan war make those displaced reluctant to return to their homes. 

A Chechen girl watches through the window as another refugee applies her make up in a tent in the Sputnik refugee camp in Sleptsovsk in Ingushetia, June 14. [A pro-Moscow Moslem cleric appointed to head the administration in separatist Chechnya called on Wednesday for rebels battling Russian troops to lay down their arms.] 

Chechen children peer out of a window of the tent that they live in, in the Karabulak refugee camp in Ingushetia June 11. The Kremlin's new envoy to the volatile North Cauasus said on Friday his top priority would be halting the fighting in Chechnya, but a rebel attack which killed three doctor showed how difficult his task would be. 

A Chechen girl collects bread in a tent in the Sputnik refugee camp near the town of Sleptsovsk in Ingushetia April 5. [Chechen rebels said on Wednesday they had executed nine Russian paramilitary policemen after Moscow refused to swap them for an officer accused of raping and killing a Chechen woman. ] 

Chechen refugees wait at a window in a tent to recieve bread in exchange for vouchers in a camp near Karabulak in Ingushetia March 25. On Friday Moscow sealed off the borders of Chechnya as a precaution against terrorist attacks in the rebel region on March 26, the day of Russia's presidential election. 

Chechen refugees wait to receive their rations of bread at a refugee camp near the town of Karabulak in Ingushetia March 8. [Russia's military said on Wednesday it wanted to wrap up its drive against Chechen separatists before the onset of spring, but acknowledged fresh losses in fierce mountain fighting.] 

A refugee on the way back to Chechnya passes beneath a mural from local folklore at the Adler Checkpoint in Ingushetia March 4. Russian forces were locked in fresh mountain battles with Chechen separatist rebels on Saturday as top military officials converged on the region to investigate a deadly ambush of a convoy of servicemen. 

A Chechen refugee looks at a Russian soldier standing on an armoured personnel carrier as he passes through the Adler Checkpoint in Ingushetia February 29. The military trumpeted a decisive victory over Chechen fighters on Tuesday when the Russian flag was hoisted over the last of the rebels strongholds in the mountainous south of the breakaway region. 

A Chechen refugee family carries bags of dried bread crusts at the Sputnik refugee camp in Ingushetia February 24. Russian warplanes bombed rebels in gorges in southern Chechnya on Thursday and troops pressed their campaign to take the fighters' Shatoi stronghold. 

Chechen refugee men carry the meat of a veal sacrificed to commemorate Chechen people who died during the 1944 mass deportation by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, at Sputnik refugee camp in Ingushetia February 23. Chechens marked a tense anniversary of the Soviet-era deportation of their people on Wednesday as a human rights body said Russian forces in the rebel region had killed civilians this month. 

A Chechen boy collects bread handed out to him in a refugee camp near the village of Aki-yurt in Ingushetia February 21. [Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev watched triumphantljy on Monday as soldiers paraded before him in the conquered Chechen capital Grozny while warplanes and artillery pounded rebels in the south.] 

A woman fuels a small stove as Chechen children study in a school tent that was provided by the United Nations child welfare organisation UNICEF in a refugee camp in the village of Yanvere in Ingushetia February 16. [Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday named a special representative to respond to complaints about human rights abuses in the breakaway region of Chechnya.] 

A Russian solder sits at the controls of an anti-aircraft gun installed on a lorry heading to Chechnya at the Adler checkpoint in Ingushetia February 16. Russian warplanes and helicopter gunships pounded rebel positions in the south of Chechnya on Wednesday in preparation for a final ground assault against several thousand fighters holed up in the icy highlands. 

Chechen women cry during a ceremony commemorating the sisters Yandarbiev killed in Staropromislovsky district of Grozny February 12. Their third sister Desi brought the remains to the Sputnik refugee camp to bury. Russian planes blasted rebel positions in the south of Chechnya on Friday and Moscow's main spokesman for the military campaign shrugged off Chechen threats of an all-out guerrilla offensive. 

A Chechen woman Desi Yandarbieva stands by the calcinated body of one of her two sisters killed in Staropromislovsky district of Grozny February 12. Desi brought the remains of her sisters to the Sputnik refugee camp to bury them. Russian planes blasted rebel positions in the south of Chechnya on Friday and Moscow's main spokesman for the military campaign shrugged off Chechen threats of an all-out guerrilla offensive. 

Chechen refugees pass through the Adler checkpoint in Ingushetia February 10. Russia unleashed furious air strikes on the Chechen rebel-held southern mountains on Thursday and struck lowland villages housing guerrillas who had retreated from the fallen capital, Grozny. 

Russian troops bound for Chechnya look out from the back of a truck as they pass through the Adler Checkpoint in Ingushetia February 6. Russian news agency Interfax quoted [Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin] on Sunday as saying that the military operation in the Chechen capital Grozny had ended. 

Chechen refugees grimace as they look out of a tent window in a camp near Karabulak in Ingushetia February 5. Russian troops advanced against the few remaining pockets of resistance in the Chechen capital on Saturday and battled rebels in nearby areas but a senior commander said the focus was now turning to the south of the breakaway region. 

Chechen women cook over a fire in a cow shed they are using as a temporary shelter near Karabulak in Ingushetia February 5. Russian troops advanced against the few remaining pockets of resistance in the Chechen capital Grozny on Saturday and battled rebels in nearby areas but a senior commander said the focus was now turning to the south of the breakaway region. 

Chechen children warm themselves by a fire in a cow shed they are using as temporary shelter near Karabulak in Ingushetia February 5. Russian troops advanced against the few remaining pockets of resistance in the Chechen capital Grozny on Saturday and battled rebels in nearby areas but a senior commander said the focus was now turning to the south of the breakaway region. 

Chechen children play outside their tents in a refugee camp near the village of Sleptsovsk in Ingushetia February 2. Russia said on Wednesday that organised resistance was melting away in the Chechen capital Grozny after rebels announced they had abandoned the shattered city. 

A Chechen woman tends to her child in a tent in a refugee camp near the village of Sleptsovsk in Ingushetia February 2. Russia said on Wednesday that organised resistance was melting away in the Chechen capital Grozny after rebels announced they had abandoned the shattered city. 

Chechen women queue for bread in a refugee camp near the village of Sleptsovsk in Ingushetia February 2. Russia said on Wednesday that organised resistance was melting away in the Chechen capital Grozny after rebels announced they had abandoned the shattered city. 

Russian soldiers look out of an open hatch of their armoured vehicle heading to Chechnya at Adler checkpoint in Ingushetia January 30. Russia said 70 rebels had downed arms in Grozny on Sunday, signalling a breakthrough in its bid to seize the Chechen capital, and predicted more fighters would surrender soon. 

A Chechen refugee boy aims his toy pistol as he plays in a refugee camp near Karabulak in Ingushetia January 30. Russia said 70 rebels had downed arms in Grozny on Sunday, signalling a breakthrough in its bid to seize the Chechen capital, and predicted more fighters would surrender soon. 

A column of Russian armoured vehicles passes a checkpoint in Ingushetia heading to Chechnya November 10. A European security envoy urged Russia and the world on Thursday to do more to resolve the "alarming" plight of refugees fleeing a Russian military crackdown in the breakaway province of Chechnya.
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A column of Russian armored vehicles passes a checkpoint in Ingushetia heading to Chechnya November 10. A European security envoy urged Russia and the world to do more to resolve the "alarming" plight of refugees fleeing a Russian military crackdown in the breakaway province of Chechnya.

CVI/ME/RC