Invisible Opposition: How Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation Fight for Their Independence

The story of Free Idel-Ural started in February 2018. One of the leaders of the Tatar national movement, Rafis Kashapov, and Syres’ Bolyaien’ who was a native of Mordovia and lead the Erzyan national movement conducted the press conference in Kyiv. With a small group of adherents, they publicly declared the establishment of Free Idel-Ural. Why in Kyiv? Kashapov protested against the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and spent three years in prison because of that. Syres’ Bolyaien’ has lived in Kyiv since Soviet times after military service. In the 1990s, he met Viacheslav Chornovil, a famous Ukrainian dissident and politician, while guarding the monument to Lenin. Chornovil was a political prisoner in Mordovia in the 1970s so he heard the familiar accent from Bolyaien’ almost immediately and stroke conversation.  <a href="https://roman-klochko.medium.com/invisible-opposition-how-indigenous-peoples-of-the-russian-federation-fight-for-their-independence-8302658cc5bf">Click Here</a>