Tag: Tatarstan

Moscow Moves to Create Alternative Crimean Tatar Organization

October 24, 2014

Staunton, October 21 – The Russian occupation authorities have announced plans to create a new Crimean Tatar public movement by the end of this year, the latest step in their efforts to isolate, discredit and undermine the Crimean Tatar Mejlis which is committed to a Crimean Tatar future within Ukraine rather than in the Russian […]

Volga Tatar Activist’s Conviction Echoes in Russia and Ukraine

October 5, 2014

Staunton, October 3 – The conviction of Fauziya Bayramova, president of the Volga Tatar Milli Mejlis and a longtime activist for the Tatar nation, for her support of the Crimean Tatars as well as her suspended one-year sentence is attracting widespread attention in the Russian Federation and in Ukraine. Yesterday, a city court in Naberezhny […]

Putin’s ‘Russian World’ Death Knell for Civic Russian Identity, Tatarstan Editor Says

September 29, 2014

Staunton, September 26 – Rashit Akhmetov, the editor of the Kazan weekly Zvezda Povolzhya, says that Vladimir Putin’s promotion of the idea of a “Russian world” is the death knell for a civic Russian identity and that this, combined with his authoritarian and great power chauvinist approach, is exacerbating ethnic identities of Russians and non-Russians […]

Russian Occupiers in Crimea Shut and then Re-open Gasprinsky Library But Allow Meeting in His Honor

September 26, 2014

Staunton, September 26 – Four days after the Russian occupation authorities closed down the Gasprinsky Library in Simferopol as part of their effort to rein in the Crimean Tatars, later reopening it presumably under tighter control, the same officials allowed a meeting to take place in Bakchisarai in honor of the centenary of the death […]

End of Long-Wave Radio in Russia Hurts Kazan Tatars, Other Dispersed Nations: Expert

September 22, 2014

Staunton, September 19 – Many people connected with international broadcasting have lamented the passing of shortwave broadcasting because it means that it is difficult if not impossible to engage in radio broadcasting to populations except on from stations located on the territory of the country such stations wish to reach. That gives the governments of […]

Following Tatars, Bashkirs Want Republic Presidency Kept As Well

September 17, 2014

Staunton, September 17 – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion at the end of August that the people of Tatarstan should have the right to decide the title of their republic leader has opened a Pandora’s box with some in other republics now demanding the retention of the title “president” for themselves. Yesterday, Murtaza Rakhimov, the […]

Putin’s War in Ukraine Saves Tatarstan’s Special Status For Now

September 2, 2014

Staunton, September 2 – Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has “unexpectedly” allowed Tatarstan to retain its presidency and thus “again confirm its status as a special region within Russia, ‘an exception from the rules,’ as former Federal Council speaker Sergey Mironov put it, and thus, “a bastion of federalism” within Russia, according to a Muslim […]

Tatarstan Challenges Moscow on Dropping Presidential Title in Republics

July 11, 2014

Staunton, July 10 – In a move that recalls Kazan’s behavior during the 1990s, Farid Mukhametshin, the chairman of Tatarstan’s State Council, has called for the retention of the title of republic president and said that the Russian Duma had violated the Constitution and exceeded its authority by demanding that republics change that title to […]

St. Petersburg Imam Moves to Crimea to Push Moscow’s Agenda

June 14, 2014

Staunton, June 14 – The lack of local support in Crimea for the Russian occupation and the resistance of the Crimean Tatars to that occupation has prompted an imam from St. Petersburg to go to Crimea where he serves as Moscow’s point man against the Milli Mejlis which has just announced the Crimean Tatars will […]

Unless Ethnic Russians Have Autonomy, Russian Federation Will Disintegrate, Moscow Analyst Says

June 8, 2014

Staunton, June 7 – Unless Moscow gives territorial autonomy to ethnic Russians and ends as much as possible inter-regional transfers of government spending, the Russian Federation “in the near future” will explode in “a civil war analogous to the Ukrainian one” and “inevitably “disintegrate,” according to Mariya Butina. In a post on Ekho Moskvy, the […]