Bashkirs Burn Flag of Pre-1917 Russian Empire under which Some Russian Troops have Been Fighting in Ukraine

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Jan. 4 – A scandal has broken out in Bashkortostan where a group of Bashkirs has burned the flag of the Russian Empire after young people in emulation of veterans of the Ukrainian war returned and declared that they and other Russian troops were fighting under that banner there.
    Details about this are still fragmentary and the republic authorities have not yet reacted although the group of Russians who flew the flag have apologized and said they would use a banner incorporating both the Russian flag and the Bashkortostan flag in the future (echofm.online/stories/v-bashkortostane-ne-utihayut-strasti-vokrug-flaga-rossijskoj-imperii).
    It is likely that the Russians involved were members of or associated with the Russian Community, a Russian nationalist group that has frequently used symbols from imperial Russia and has not been shy about displaying them and helping authorities suppress non-Russian groups (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/10/extremist-russian-community-now-active.html,  windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/10/another-black-hundreds-group-revived-in.html and jamestown.org/program/russian-community-extremists-becoming-the-black-hundreds-of-today/).
    But the readiness of Bashkirs, currently being subject to the largest trial of protesters in the contemporary Russian Federation, to respond by burning the Russian imperial flag reflects both growing tensions in that republic and the way in which even the appearance of symbols of Russian imperialism can trigger clashes.