Chechnya should be merged with Ingushetia and Dagestan to form one subject of the Russian Federation, senior Chechen officials said this week, sending up a trial balloon that caused an uproar both within the volatile North Caucasus and beyond. “It would be feasible in the long run to raise the issue of establishing a new region in southern Russia, which would include Dagestan, the Chechen republic and Ingushetia,” said the speaker of the Chechen parliament, Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov. Full Story