Kazan Again Challenges Putin’s ‘Common Legal Space’

Tatarstan is again challenging Vladimir Putin’s much-ballyhooed effort to establish a common legal space across the entire Russian Federation by considering legislation on the family that will establish very different rules for Tatars and pursuing educational policies that will reverse the Russianization of the education system there.

Tatars Recall Russian Occupation of Kazan in 1552 Despite Threats from Officials

Approximately 150 Tatar intellectuals commemorated the 456th anniversary of the Russian occupation of Kazan with a meeting that called for the independence of Tatarstan and the Middle Volga — even though Russian security agencies had warned people there not to take part in the meeting.

Belarusians, Russians Aren’t Cousins Let Alone Brothers, New Book Says

Anatoly Taras

Even as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka promote between their two governments, a new book argues that “Russians and Belarusians are in no way brothers. Indeed, they are not even cousins” and adds that they have had very different histories and will experience very different fates.

Is Bashkir Separatism Real or ‘Administered’?

A Bashkir separatist group that recently attracted international attention is less a genuine movement than a tool of the republic’s leader who exploits its existence to intimidate Moscow into thinking that only he can control the situation there, members of the mainstream Bashkir opposition told a Moscow newspaper.