Two years after his inconclusive polemic with Republic of Ingushetia head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov over their disputed border, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has fired the first round in a new quarrel.Addressing Chechen Interior Ministry personnel on April 22, Kadyrov openly labeled Saygidpasha Umakhanov, longtime mayor of the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt just over the Chechen-Dagestan border, "a bandit". Kadyrov further alleged that Umakhanov's brother channels money to the Islamic insurgency. Umakhanov responded with a statement saying his religious and moral convictions do not permit him to engage in a polemic with Kadyrov in light of his profound respect for Kadyrov's late father Akhmad-hadji.
Kadyrov's grievances with the municipal leadership in Khasavyurt in general, and with the Umakhanov family in particular, center on their imputed connivance with the North Caucasus insurgency (of which, as Kadyrov noted, an Avar from Dagestan was recently elected to succeed Doku Umarov as leader) and the spillover into Chechnya.