Itum-Kali - Shatili (highway)

Since ancient times, the Argun Gorge has been used for contacts between Chechen highlanders and Georgians. According to the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron : “ In 1843, one of the most brave and capable military leaders of Shamil , Akhverda-Magom, attacked Shatili with a huge crowd of Chechens, demanding that the Khevsurs depose themselves from the Russians and submit to Shamil: the Shatilians not only fought off the enemy, Akhverdy-Magoma and 100 people from his flock were killed, having lost only 2 people themselves ” ^[1] . In Soviet times, the highway from Grozny reached only Itum-Kali . The construction of the road from Itum-Kali to the Georgian border began in the early 1990s, but was discontinued due to the outbreak of hostilities ^[2] . According to the Nakh online newspaper Erda, “... it is known that the fathers bequeathed to the Chechens the construction of a road to Gurzhi-mohk - Georgia . This was due to many different factors, including the strategic benefit for the Chechen people. ” ^[3]

After the signing of the Khasavyurt Accords of 1996, which put an end to the First Chechen War , which became a de facto independent state, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria resumed the construction of this road, which acquired strategic importance for it under the conditions of the actual semi-blockade of Russia . The construction of the site to the Georgian border was supposed to prevent the economic blockade of the republic and the CRI government spared no funds for its construction. The road was laid along the Argun River, in many places - through directed explosions. ^[2]

Between the first and second Chechen campaigns, illegal armed groups managed to turn more than thirty-kilometer trails into the gorge of the Argun River into a road that is accessible for any vehicle, including cars. It was during the construction of this road that dozens of slaves of “free Ichkeria” captured by bandits were used ^[4] . According to the commander of the federal group in Chechnya, General G. Troshev , the work of slaves was widely used in the construction of the Itum-Kali - Shatili road : “ ... the then main supply channel for weapons and ammunition on the Itum-Kali-Shatili mountain road, which was built for militants at gunpoint hundreds of “slaves” from all over Russia. ” ^[5]

An article by Nezavisimaya Gazeta describes the Itum-Kali-Shatili road:

The military commandant's office also told the story of the construction by the Russian slaves of a mountain road laid along the gorge. We saw this road: originating in Itum-Kali, rising higher and higher into the mountains, wrapping its serpentine belly over the sullen rocky slopes above Argun, which was boiling below, it disappeared in foggy haze among the impassable passes behind which Georgia is located. According to Chechens and Russian prisoners, this road was built after 1996, in the interval between the first and second wars. The Chechens strictly guarded the road: they set up posts, barriers. They didn’t finish it, it doesn’t reach the Georgian border quite a bit. According to Lt. Col. Schukin, more than a thousand people were needed for its construction, and there might have been prisoners of war. But of the 11 liberated Itum-Kalin slaves, not one directly said that he participated in the construction of the road. The prisoners spoke of this only in hints. These people are scared to the limit and fear that it will become known to their former owners, they will be found and any information may cost them their heads. ^[6]

The Georgian part of the road, with a length of only 2 kilometers, was never completed, allegedly for political reasons. According to the official statements made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Irakli Menagarishvili in 1999, "the leadership of Georgia at this stage is not considering the possibility of opening a highway . " According to the minister, "this issue can only be put on the agenda if the political relations between Chechnya and Russia are finally clarified." At the same time, the head of the foreign ministry diplomatically emphasized that Georgia considers Chechnya as a subject of Russia. A more radical position was taken by the leader of the parliamentary majority faction “Union of Georgian Citizens”, the future president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili . He generally rejected the possibility of opening the Itum-Kali - Shatili highway. In his opinion, the opening of the road to Chechnya , which is "an incomprehensible state entity where violence and banditry flourishes, means condemning Georgia to completely unnecessary trials . " According to him, there are forces in Georgia that are extremely interested in the beginning of the functioning of the road. “These are primarily corrupt officials and related organized crime groups specializing in the supply of alcohol to Russia, the smuggling of raw materials and drugs. The construction of the road opens up prospects for them to complete transactions, bypassing the checkpoints officially operating on the Russian-Georgian border. If, nevertheless, the road starts to function, then, in addition to political and international treaty problems in Russian-Georgian relations, a whole bunch of economic and law enforcement can also be added. ” According to the statement of the chairman of the commission for relations with the peoples of the North Caucasus, the Georgian Parliament Mamuki Areshidze, employees The departments of the border and customs service of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria are doing the same thing as ordinary bandits: hostage-taking, cattle theft from neighbors, drug smuggling and other smuggling andes . It is clear that they have no time to guard the border. The corresponding services of Georgia are not up to par. ^[7]

With the beginning of the Second Chechen War, the Itum-Kali - Shatili road began to be widely used to supply the Chechen armed formations with weapons and ammunition that were in transit through Azerbaijan and Georgia . Argun Gorge - the natural and only "gate" that provided the connection of bandits with the so-called neighboring countries. The only direct and passable road from Georgia to Chechnya led only through Shatili . Other asphalt roads went from Chechnya to Georgia via North Ossetia and Ingushetia and could not be used to regularly supply the Chechen Republic of Chechen Republicans. There were still mountain trails going through the Tusheti ridge, but in winter it is almost impossible to break through them through the passes with a large load on a horse. At the same time, the Chechen section of the Russian-Georgian border remained completely transparent. According to data released at the beginning of 2000 by the Georgian ex-Minister of Defense of Kitovani , by then up to 1,500 armed bandits had moved from Chechnya to the territory of Georgia, to the Pankisi Gorge . ^[four]

To block the arms supply channels, Russian aviation launched a massive bombardment of the road. So, in a report by NTV correspondent Arkady Mamontov dated 11/13/1999 from a military airfield in Mozdok , it was said that the Air Force was tasked with blocking the last artery from Grozny going along the Argun Gorge. According to refugees, the Su-24 and Su-25 aircraft were mainly used for this purpose. At the end of September, there were several attacks by Mi-24 attack helicopter groups that attacked in the Itum-Kali area, but subsequently they refused to use helicopters in this area until December, when the section of the road from Itum-Kali to the border was taken under control by a helicopter landing federal troops during Operation Argun . ^[2]

During the fighting on the Itum-Kali-Shatili road, a significant number of refugees moved to Georgia. The Memorial Society received numerous complaints from anti-Russian Chechens who left the territory of Chechnya. All refugees claimed that on the road they were afraid of air raids, hid when aircraft were approaching under trees, or tried to wait out dangerous times in villages. The air raids, according to the refugees, were carried out mainly by pairs of airplanes, often as if "on a schedule." The main target of the attacks was bridges and vehicles on the road. The road was plowed with funnels in many places, but the pits quickly filled up. Air clearance of the road, unlike the neighboring forests, was not conducted. There were practically no bridges on the road, which played a positive role for the Chechens and made it possible to use the road after massive bombing by Russian aircraft ^[2] .

On December 20, 1999, according to Colonel-General Yevgeny Bolkhovitin, who then commanded the North Caucasus Regional Directorate of the Federal Border Guard Service of Russia , border guards subordinate to him “ carried out a unique special landing operation ”, “ as a result, we closed the main road connecting the Chechen village of Itum-Kale with Georgian Shatili, "" here, it's hidden in the hillside near the base for training terrorists, "" militants fled from the Argun gorge like cockroaches, "" operation was carried out so quickly brilliant that we have a single soldier is not even cold, and the weather was very frosty " ^[8] .

In February 2000, according to Gennady Troshev , who commanded the combined military force at that time, “ we prepared an unpleasant surprise for the bandits when a tactical assault landing was launched in the deep rear, in the Itum-Kale region. Thus, the then main supply channel for weapons and ammunition was cut along the Itum-Kale-Shatili mountain road ” ^[9] .

Also in February 2000, according to the author of Independent Military Review, Mi-24 helicopters participated in the creation of blockages and destruction zones on sections of the Itum-Kale-Shatili road ^[10] .

For 2015, the Itum-Kali-Shatili road was never completed. However, the Chechen leadership considers plans to complete the construction of the road. According to the Erda website in Chechnya, “ In the Strategy being developed for the socio-economic development of the Chechen Republic for the period until 2020, emphasis has been placed on the implementation of infrastructure projects aimed at developing the republic’s transport and logistics complex. Including the completion of the construction of the Grozny-Shatoy-Itum-Kali-Shatili highway (Republic of Georgia) with its inclusion in the North-South international transport corridor, bringing it to the level of compliance with the federal highway of category II, the creation of an appropriate transport and social infrastructure and the possibility of using it in the future as an alternative to the Transcaucasian Highway. The advantage of the road is the possibility of year-round operation. The road will be 42 km long (the Itum-Kali-Shatili section of the road). The projected value is 3.1 billion rubles. ” The completion of the construction of the Grozny-Shatili road should lead to a rapid recovery of the economy of the Czech Republic, as well as to an improvement in the quality of life of the republic’s residents strengthening international relations and establishing contacts with diasporas and many other positive results. ^[3]