Paul Goble
Staunton, Jan. 6 – Orenburg, the Russian oblast between Kazakhstan and the peoples of the Middle Volga Stalin created in order to block the latter from having an external border, qualifying to be union republics, and thus invoking a constitutional right to withdraw from the USSR, remains a cockpit of conflict.
Some Bashkirs argue that Orenburg should be turned over to them and thus give them and the other peoples of Idel-Ural a bridge out of the Russian Federation. And some Kazakhs argue that it should become part of Kazakhstan. With its mixed Russian, Kazakh, and Bashkir population, Orenburg is very much a region in contention.
Some have argued that Orenburg in fact represents a corridor, one equivalent in potential explosives to corridors elsewhere; and Ukrainian writers have argued that Kyiv should exploit it against Moscow ((jamestown.org/program/the-orenburg-corridor-and-the-future-of-the-middle-volga/, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/11/orenburg-corridor-threatens-russia-more.html, prometheus.ngo/idel-ural-polyethnic-volcano-of-the-russian-federation/ and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/01/ukrainian-interest-in-orenburg-corridor.html.)
The unrest in Kazakhstan has certainly echoed in the region as ethnic Kazakhs there have found it impossible to telephone relatives in Kazakhstan and become fearful that there will be massive refugee flows if that unrest continues. But a leader of the Kazakh community there has played down these concerns.
Zhanabai Balabayev, president of the Orenburg Regional Kazakh National-Cultural Autonomy, says of course Kazakhs in his oblast are concerned about what is happening in Kazakhstan but that they are above all Russian Federation citizens and thus protected from any spillover (7x7-journal.ru/news/2022/01/07/prezident-kazahskoj).
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