Since 2022, Moscow has Censored Russian-Language Media in Tatarstan Far More Heavily than It has Tatar-Language Outlets There, Arslanov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 29 – Since Vladimir Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has imposed far tighter censorship on Russian-language media in Tatarstan than it has on Tatar-language outlets there, according to Tatar commentator Ayrat Arslanov.

            What this has meant, he says, is that subjects like the preservation of native languages, Russificaiton and the nationality policy of the Russian Federation have almost completely disappeared from Russian-language Tatarstan media outlets and coverage of them has been reduced but far less severely in Tatar-language ones (posle.media/tatarstan-vo-vremya-vojny/).

            The reason for this pattern, heightened since 2022, Aslanov says, is that “publications and television broadcasts in Tatar have always attracted less interest from the center than the same subjects in Russian” where such coverage can reach a broader audience not only in the republic but further afield.

            As a result, he continues, “the censoring of Tatar-language media today looks much less severe than that imposed on Russian-language outlets” especially concerning “the rights of the subjects of the federation and national-cultural problems.” Russian-language outlets in Tatarstan “completely exclude the nationality question from their agenda.”

            Given how important a role Tatarstan has played as a leader of all the non-Russian peoples within the Russian Federation since 1991, this pattern in Russian censorship not only reduces the coverage of such issues generally but significantly reduces Kazan’s influence beyond the borders of Tatarstan. And at the same time, it likely defines how Moscow is acting in other non-Russian republics as well.