Paul Goble
Staunton,
December 14 – In what appears to be a case of Vladimir Putin’s “hybrid” war tactics
applied to domestic affairs within the Russian Federation a group styling itself
as the Parents’ Community of Tatarstan which is opposed to Tatar language training
in schools is being taken seriously by officials even though it is completely
anonymous and unregistered.
The existence
of such a group is a violation of the law at least to the extent that it
expects to be taken seriously by the authorities, but it is potentially
extremely useful for the Kremlin because like “’the little green men’” in
Crimea, this group offers the regime plausible deniability for actions intended
to go beyond what the Russian regime says it is doing.
Only
if this group is exposed as illegal and the authorities’ treatment of it as
otherwise as a violation of the law is there a chance that Moscow will not use
this tactic elsewhere. If it is not, what is taking place today against Tatar language
instruction can be expected to occur in other non-Russian republics in the
coming weeks or months.
On
the IdelReal portal today, journalist Ramazan Alpaut describes this case, unusual
now but a reflection of the general approach of the Putin regime of advancing
its goals under false pretenses or at least by institutions which the Russian
government can claim it has nothing to do with (idelreal.org/a/29636916.html).
In
an article entitled “The Community of Anonymous Parents: A Secret Organization
Declares War on Tatar,” the journalist says that the Parents’ Community of
Tatarstan does not have any of the attributes or registration that social
organizations are supposed to. Nonetheless, it is “successfully flooding” the Tatarstan
procuracy and the latter is doing what it wants.
This
“community,” Alpaut continues, “was formed out of the Committee of
Russian-Speaking Parents of Tataria in October 2017 – that is after Putin
declared that the study of non-Russian languages must be voluntary even though
the study of Russian is to remain compulsory for all.
The
group then launched attacks on any study of Tatar in Tatarstan, demanding that the
authorities in Kazan investigate each of its complaints. But
the Parents’ Community had no right to do that: it is not registered as an NGO,
and therefore does not have the right to interact with the authorities as it
has been doing.
Moreover,
all its letters and appeals to the Procuracy of the Republic of Tatarstan were
anonymous. No names or contact information was given. And when Alpaut tried to track them down,
those who answered the phone refused to answer any of his questions as soon as
they knew what he was trying to find out.
Pavel
Chikov, the head of the Agora Human Rights Group says that “such behavior by a
public organization violates Russian law.” That law allows groups to operate “without
registration,” he says, “but this does not mean that there is no charter, no leader,
no administration and no internal documentation.”
All
of that is required because “any individual can have an interest in these
documents. They must be accessible for society. That I, there must be some
contact information.” That is required by law” and “refusal to provide this information
is illegal,” Chikov says. If these conditions are not met, he continues, the group cannot be
considered a public organization.
And
that means this: “it does not have the right to appeal to any law enforcement organs
with demand for checking legality or other things.” That officials in Tatarstan
are ignoring these legal requirements and accepting complaints from this group suggests
that Kazan fears who is behind it, yet another indication that it is a kind of “hybrid”
attack on the republic.
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