Kamil Galeev kirjutas:
But this isn't a typical Russia region. This is Bashkortostan. It has around 2/3 Turkic Muslim majority. And the protest in question wasn't against Putin. It was against mining the sacred mount Kushtau for chalk
Bashkortostan has four shikhans. These hills have been traditionally seen as sacred. Remnants of ancient coral reefs, they basically consist of the reefogenic limestone: sediment of the prehistoric see. In this regard, they present a special interest for the Bashkir Soda Company
Bashkortostan used to have more of shikhans. The largest of them - Shakhtau - has been already mined away. That's how it looks now
In 2022, Shakhtau deposits have been exhausted, so the soda company needs to mine some other mountain
Even before Shakhtau has been exhausted completely, the soda company tried to mine a new mountain - Kushtau. In 2020, this triggered massive protests and clashes with police. Eventually, the government & the company backed away
Still, even though the authorities had to back off then, they considered the entire situation as highly problematic. Therefore, the activists who participated in the protests were persecuted. Sometimes, years later
(video lingil)
https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/ ... 0526286033
1. In April 2023, the leader of Kushtau movement Fail Alsynov gave a speech against a new gold mine in Baymak district
2. In October 2023, he was arrested & charged with hate speech
3. On January 15, there was a court hearing in Baymak
4. Which triggered a new wave of protests
So let's sum up:
1. This has nothing to do with "Russians protesting against Putin".
2. These are protests in an ethnic Turkic & Muslim region largely motivated by the disregard to local sacred places & ecology
3. And, to a certain degree, by the local nationalist sentiment.
PS The problem of the Bashkir Soda company has a geospatial dimension. Its beneficiaries don't live in Bashkortostan (obviously). They seem to spend most of time in Geneva and in their spacious estates on French Riviera
Which turns the mining problem into a problem of the absentee landlordism. Even in purely economic terms, this doesn't look as a particularly good deal from the Bashkortostani standpoint. Shareholders will have the profits to spend on Riviera. Local will have the toxic water