PROTESTS OVER RUSSIA’S NEW PASSPORT SPILL OVER FROM TATARSTAN TO BASHKORTOSTAN.

Tensions remain high in Tatarstan over Russia’s new passports (see Monitor, October 27), and protests have now spilled over into neighboring Bashkortostan. Last weekend, young people in the Bashkir capital, Ufa, held a protest demonstration during which they set fire to a replica of Russia’s new identity document. (RTR, November 4) Members of the Tatar and Bashkir communities are angry that the new passports are printed only in Russian and contain no entry for the holder’s nationality. The authorities in Bashkortostan have followed Tatarstan’s example and ordered local Interior Ministry officials to halt distribution of the new documents on the territory of the republic.

In Tatarstan, the republic parliament is to meet on November 13 to debate whether or not to introduce the republic’s own passport. The proposal has the support not only of Tatar nationalists but also of President Mintimer Shaimiev. The Monitor’s correspondent in the region reports that Shaimiev — who in the past has distanced himself from the nationalist wing — has declared that, as president, he is bound to uphold Tatarstan’s constitution. It enshrines the principle of dual citizenship and the equal status of the Tatar and Russian languages.

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