Many in Buryatia, Transbaikal Fear Chinese Presence Will Grow Now Their Republics are in Far Eastern Federal District

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 13 – Despite official efforts to celebrate Vladimir Putin’s decision to shift Buryatia and the Transbaikal Kray from the Siberian Federal District to the Far Eastern one, many in both fear that one consequence of this move will be a dramatically expanded Chinese presence on their territories.

            Indeed, Rosbalt commentator Dmitry Remizov says that some see this Putin move as intended to hand them over to the Chinese, something many in the republic and region are very much against given the overbearing attitude of Chinese businessmen and officials already (rosbalt.ru/russia/2018/11/12/1745809.html).

            The shift of the two federal subjects, transforming them from “Siberians” to “Far Easterners,” Remizov says, hasn’t generated any enthusiasm locally. They don’t believe it will improve their situation, and they fear that China will exploit the shift, especially if the far easter hectare program is extended to their territories.

            While that program is intended to attract residents of other parts of the Russian Federation to the Far East, there are a variety of ways in which Russian citizens can claim the land and then hand it over to foreigners, including Chinese, a violation of the spirit if not in every case the letter of the law.

            “Residents of Buryatia,” the Rosbalt commentator continues, “have already began collecting signatures on an Internet petition calling on Moscow to return the republic to the Siberian FD.” The petition stresses that Buryats are most concerned that the shift will harm the protection of Lake Baikal because that body of water will now be between two FDs.

            But they are also worried, Bair Tsyrenov, a deputy of the republic legislature says, that if supervision of Baikal fails, then even more Chinese will move in to purchase land on its shores and even the water contained in the world’s oldest and deepest lake, both of which the Buryats say violates their interests and the interests of the Russian Federation as a whole.

            The fact that the lake will now be between two FDs rather than within one is troubling, Tsyrenov says. “Of course, these are not different countries, but all the main structures for the lake’s protection remain in the Siberian FD and now it is unclear how these arrangements will be allocated” now that Buryatia has been shifted.

            Residents of the Transbaikal Kray “on the whole are indifferent” about the transfer, Stas Zakharov of the Chernaya gazeta says; “but they fear there will be a further worsening of their socio-economic situation,” with more outmigration, less investment and more Chinese pouring in because there is no one else. 

            Others, however, have a more dire view of what this change will be. Konstantin Sobolyev of the Transbaikal Popualr Front says that by giving the Chinese additional possibilities for working in the federal subject, it certainly appears that “the government of the Russian Federation is trying to ensure that a popular revolt will occur” in the Transbaikal.

            Such a possibility, he insists, “is not beyond the mountains” now.  This action took place without any consultation by Moscow with the local population. Officials at the center are certain, Sobolyev says, that “’the lord’ knows better how his ‘peasant’ should live and act. But Russians are ever more beginning to doubt in ‘the wisdom’ of the supreme power.”

            The shift in borders, an act of insanity the population would never have approved if asks, may soon become the trigger for far more serious protests.