Bashkortostan Should Be Focusing on Kosovo not the DNR, the Free Idel Ural Movement Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 1 – Radyy Khabirov, acting head of Bashkortostan, has warmly received the leader of the unrecognized Donetsk Peoples Republic, an example of the separatism Moscow approves of but a kind that will do Khabirov’s Middle Volga republic no good. Instead, the Free Idel-Ural Movement says, Khabirov and Bashkirs more generally should be focusing on Kosovo.

            Following Khabirov’s meeting with DNR head Denis Pushilin, the regional movement said that it fully understands and supports “the striving of the Bashkir leadership to more closely become acquainted with the international experience of separatist movements” but that the DNR is clearly the wrong one to follow (idelreal.org/a/30030125.html).

            “Not a single country in the world recognizes the Donets Peoples Republic, the Free Idel-Ural movement says. Its head cannot travel to many countries because he is on various sanctions and watned lists.  The future of the DNR is far from certain because it is not an independent state but rather a tool Moscow is using against Ukraine.

            But if the DNR is a bad model, that doesn’t mean there aren’t good one for Khabirov and Bashkortostan to consider, the Free Idel-Ural movement says. It suggests that Bashkirs focus on Kosovo, a successful separatist movement whose state is recognized by many countries and whose leader can travel without constraints. 

            It would be a very good thing, the movement says, for Khabirov to invite the leaders of Kosovo to Ufa. But of course, Moscow wouldn’t like that – and all indications are that its man in Bashkortostan will not do anything that the Kremlin would not approve of.