Latest Articles about Middle Volga
Struggle Over Tatar Language Impacts More Than Just Tatarstan
Tatarstan has long been considered the bellwether of nationality relations inside Russia. The republic has arguably held this status since at least 1920, when Joseph Stalin—then Soviet Commissar for Nationalities Affairs—engaged in his first act of ethnic engineering by dividing up the Turkic peoples of... MORE
Is Bashkortostan About to Explode Along Ethnic Lines?
By population, Bashkortostan is the largest non-Russian republic in the Russian Federation. And yet, its particular ethnic mix has meant that this Middle Volga region has heretofore been far less unsettled than many others. The titular Bashkirs, a Turkic Muslim people, form only 29.5 percent... MORE
Tsentr 2015: Testing Mobility and Strategic Messaging
Russia’s Armed Forces and security bodies have concluded the primary military exercise of the combat training year. The strategic-operational exercise Tsentr 2015 was the largest of the year, modeling an intervention in Central Asia under the umbrella of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The... MORE
Grozny Demands Prisons in Bashkortostan to Be Investigated for Mistreatment of Chechen Prisoners
By and large, the policy of the current leadership of Chechnya is to emphasize the positive sides of life both in the republic itself and in the Russian Federation in general. However, Chechen authorities sometimes show their discontent with Russian authorities. In one of the... MORE
Tatarstani Cossacks Enter Government Service
Although not commonly associated with the Cossacks, the city of Kazan (in the ethnic republic of Tatarstan, historically a Muslim region) played host, in mid-June, to a meeting of the regional coordination center for Cossack revival. The meeting was attended by the Cossack Party of... MORE
Moscow Plans to Increase Pressure on Ethnic Minority Languages
On May 19, President Vladimir Putin addressed a joint meeting of the Council for Interethnic Relations and the Council for Russian Language. “The preservation and development of the Russian language and all the languages of the peoples of the country are essential for the harmonization... MORE
Mufti Tajuddin Seeks to Make Himself and Then His Son ‘Muslim Patriarch’ of Russia
Many might dismiss the beating of a 57-year-old imam in rural Chuvashia (Regnum, May 7) as a minor local episode. But in fact, it threatens to open a dramatic, violent and potentially explosive new phase in efforts by Talgat Tajuddin, the last mufti in the... MORE
Authorities Crack Down on Tatarstan Activists
On December 28, 2014, authorities in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan, detained Tatar rights activist Rafis Kashapov upon his return from Turkey, where he had reportedly received medical treatment and held meetings with local activists. The authorities ordered the activist detained for two months... MORE
Battle Over Names of Republics and Titles of Governors Erupts in Russia’s Volga Region
Tatarstan remains the only republic in the Russian Federation whose governor has the official title of president. The Kremlin has insisted that there be only one president in the country—the president of the Russian Federation—and all of the autonomous republics have ultimately bowed to Moscow’s... MORE
Analyst from Tatarstan Asserts That the West Wants to Destabilize the Republic Using Islamists
The notoriously well-known analyst from Tatarstan, Rais Suleimanov, has attacked the West for alleged support of Islamists in the republic. In his controversial and contradictory report, Suleimanov accuses the West of supporting Tatar nationalism and Islamism, but in the process he exposes his apparent close... MORE