NAZRAN. March 15 (Interfax) - Senator Nikita Ivanov, representing Ingushetia in the upper house of parliament, said that the law on joining part of Ingushetia to Chechnya's Sunzha district is of no legal relevance, and that this territorial issue will be settled shortly.
"We know that Ingushetia has submitted a package of documents dealing with this issue to federal executive agencies, so I think it will be finally closed very soon," Ivanov told reporters in Nazran.
The Chechen parliament's unilateral adoption of a law joining part of Ingushetia's territory to the republic's Sunzha district, has no effect," he said.
"This regulatory act has no legal relevance. The constitution clearly defines the procedure of establishing borders between Russia's constituent territories," the senator said.
Ingushetia head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and other officials' reaction to the Chechen lawmakers' decision was adequate enough, he said.
The legislative amendments passed by the Chechen parliament joins several populated areas of Ingushetia to Chechnya. The public dispute over the border, which has not been established at the legislative level yet, erupted between the two constituent republics in August 2012 and led to an exchange of sharp statements between Chechnya head Ramzan Kadyrov and Yevkurov. Consultations began at about the same time between Chechen and Ingush officials and lawmakers on the definition of the administrative border.