Nationalism simmering in Tataristan
Farhan Siddiqui
Russians take aim with ballots
Nationalism simmering in Tataristan
`Imperial rule': Some members of largest minority dream of autonomy. By
Gareth Jones Reuters
KAZAN, Russia -- Ildus Sadik plans to boycott Russia's parliamentary
election Sunday and hopes to persuade his fellow Tatars to do the same.
Sadik believes his oil-rich region of Tataristan, home to Russia's
largest ethnic minority, should throw off Moscow's yoke, declare
independence and recreate the glories of the medieval Mongol-Tatar
Golden Horde.
``Why should we Tatars vote for the Russian State Duma? We should not
sit in the parliament of a foreign state,'' said Sadik, deputy head of
the nationalist Tatar Social Center based in the regional capital,
Kazan.
But, speaking to Reuters in an office adorned with Tatar green-red-and-
white flags, the gently spoken retired engineer acknowledged that most
of his compatriots were unlikely to heed his call for a boycott.
``You cannot rub out nearly 500 years of imperial rule overnight,'' he
said with a philosophical sigh. ``It is going to take a long time to
achieve independence.''
Struggling since 1552
``We have been struggling against Russian domination since 1552,'' he
said, referring to Ivan the Terrible's sacking of Kazan, which
delivered the death blow to the Golden Horde and brought this Volga
River region firmly under Moscow's aegis.
Political commentators dismiss the nationalists as romantic dreamers
and say Tatars will be swayed by the same basic issues as other Russian
voters in the poll to elect a new State Duma, the lower house of
parliament.
``After Chechnya, no Russian region seriously wants to contemplate
independence,'' said Moscow-based political analyst Alexei Malashenko,
referring to Moscow's months-old military campaign to crush separatists
in Chechnya.
Malashenko said Tatar nationalism, a potent factor in the early 1990s,
had been defused by the success of Tataristan's wily president,
Mintimer Shaimiyev, in wresting a degree of autonomy from Moscow which
other Russian regions can only dream of.
Under a 1994 treaty, Tatars acquired full ownership of their oil
reserves and petrochemical companies and the right to retain most of
their tax revenues.
Moreover, the Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim Tatars comprise barely
half of their republic's 4 million people, with ethnic Russians making
up most of the remainder. Several million Tatars live outside
Tataristan, notably in Moscow and other big cities.
Tellingly, Tataristan votes Sunday not only for the Russian Duma but
also for its State Council, the regional parliament empowered to decide
local economic policy and many other issues without Moscow's
interference.
Nationalists like Sadik are enthusiastically encouraging their fellow
Tatars to vote for the State Council, which they see as an embryonic
legislature for a proudly independent Tataristan.
Nationalists aren't strong
But even Sadik conceded that nationalist candidates were unlikely to
win more than a few seats in that 130-seat chamber.
As elsewhere in Russia, the Communists and the centrist Fatherland-All
Russia (OVR) bloc led by former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov are
expected to dominate the running for both the Duma and State Council
seats.
Residents of Kazan, a proud and picturesque city of about a million,
reel off familiar complaints about Russia's present economic plight and
wax nostalgic about the Soviet past.
``I'm for the Communists. They would sort things out, get people back
to work,'' said Alexei, a taxi driver.
Asked about possible ethnic tensions between the Muslim Tatars and
Orthodox Christian Russians, he shrugged: ``What do we have to fight
over? Things are bad for all of us.''
The OVR bloc is relatively strong in Tataristan because President
Shaimiyev is a founder member and has close ties to Primakov and other
bloc leaders like Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
OVR even has a regional arm called ``Tataristan -- New Century,'' which
is contesting the State Council election.
Shaimiyev shares Primakov's belief in cautious market reforms, combined
with state help for industry and a strong social-security net.
As president, he has shielded Tataristan from Russia's market ``shock
therapy,'' liberalizing prices gradually and stepping in, for example,
to save heavily indebted truck maker Kamaz from bankruptcy and the loss
of thousands of jobs.
Party split?
In the runup to the election, Russian media have speculated about a
rift opening up within OVR, which faces a strong challenge from a newly
formed pro-Kremlin party, Unity, backed by Russia's popular prime
minister, Vladimir Putin.
Apart from the Unity factor, they have suggested that Shaimiyev is
unhappy with Primakov's talk of close cooperation with the Communists
in the new Duma.
Shaimiyev, a 62-year-old former Communist boss of his region, dismissed
all rumors of an OVR split.
``I would not rule out some degree of cooperation with the Communists.
Such cross-party cooperation happens in parliaments everywhere in the
world,'' he told Reuters in an interview.
But he made clear that such cooperation had definite limits.
``If we were the same as the Communists, why would we have bothered
setting up this new bloc? We want to form a constructive parliamentary
majority in the new Duma,'' he said.
Shaimiyev said he wanted Russia to move towards a system of government
in which the president formed a cabinet based on the parliamentary
majority, as happens in most countries.
At present, President Boris Yeltsin appoints the premier and ministers.
The Duma has to approve the prime minister, but faces dissolution if it
rejects the president's choice three times.
``Yeltsin could not allow a government of Communists, even though they
were the biggest party in the (outgoing) Duma, because they represent
an ideology rejected by society,'' said Shaimiyev.
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