The annexation of Crimea presaged a shift in the Russian government’s policy towards ethnic minorities in the Russian Federation that involved a simultaneous centralization of political power by the Kremlin and the Russification of certain indigenous societies in Russia. As one of Russia’s largest non-Russian ethnic communities, Tatars were among the first to feel this shift—both in the republic of Tatarstan, and in the annexed Ukrainian territory of Crimea. Attempts to downgrade the status of Tatar language in curricula in Tatarstan, repressions against secular and conservative ethnic Tatar activists, the crackdown against Crimean Tatar Milli Mejlis, and Russian state pressure on US-funded Tatar language media in Russia are but a few examples of the Kremlin’s new policy of Russification. Please join us for a discussion with Rim Gilfanov, head of RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service, to explore what it means to be a Tatar in today’s Russia, following the annexation of Crimea.
This event is made possible by the generous support of Carnegie Corporation of New York.
