The website www.ingushetiya.ru reproduced on 14 April what appears to be a confidential memorandum to President Putin from Viktor Kazantsev, who was removed last month from his post as presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District. The memorandum, dated 7 November 2001, claimed that separatist sentiments are widespread among the Ingush, and that the republic harbors some 20,000 members of illegal armed formations, including some from Chechnya. In order to quash the danger of separatism and improve the economic situation (Ingushetia relies on funds from Moscow for 85 percent of its budget), Kazantsev proposed that Moscow back Federal Security Service officer Murat Zyazkikov in the April 2002 Ingushetian presidential election; create a commission to draft legislation on the restoration of the former Chechen-Ingush republic (which was divided into two separate entities in the summer of 1992); and order the General Staff of the Russian armed forces to prepare to expand military operations from Chechnya into Ingushetia. Kazantsev predicted that those measures would not only stabilize the situation in Ingushetia but would result in the successful conclusion of the \"counterterrorist operation\" in Chechnya in 2002-03. Zyazikov was duly elected president in a runoff ballot with 53 percent of the vote. (RFE/RL)