Det kommande ryska folkupproret

Idel-Ural (Tatar: Идел-Урал) literally Volga-Ural is a historical region in Eastern Europe, in what is today Russia. The name literally means Volga-Urals in the Tatar language.

The term Idel-Ural is often used to designate 6 republics of Russia of this region: Bashkortostan, Chuvashia, Mari El, Mordovia, Tatarstan, and Udmurtia, especially in Tatar-language literature or in the context of minority languages. The major religions in the region are Islam and Orthodox Christianity.

Before being conquered by the Tsardom of Russia in the 16th century, the region was dominated by native Uralic tribes and a succession of Turkic empires, such as Volga Bulgaria, the Khazars, the Golden Horde, and the Khanate of Kazan.

Free Idel-Ural (Tatar: Азат Идел-Урал) is a civic movement of the people of Idel-Ural that aims for independence for the republics of Mordovia, Chuvashia, Mari El, Tatarstan, Udmurtia and Bashkortostan and the integration of these six republics into one union with a common border, economic space and collective safety system.

A Year in Review: Middle Volga Republics Becoming an Ever Bigger Headache for Moscow

January 21, 2020

Both individually and as a group, the six non-Russian republics of the Middle Volga—Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Udmurtia, Mordvinia, Mari El and Chuvashia (collectively known as the Idel-Ural)—have become a radically more serious problem for Moscow over the last year, challenging it in new ways and old.

This situation makes it almost certain that the region will be a hot spot for Moscow during 2020—not because the Middle Volga nations are likely to engage in mass demonstrations or violence but because their politicians and intellectual elites will use political means and the courts to block or at least slow President Vladimir Putin’s homogenization and Russification drives.

As a result, and as was the case in the 1990s, the Idel-Ural can be expected to play a key role in determining what is possible for Moscow and its relationship with regions and republics across the entire Russian Federation.

The Jamestown Foundation was founded in 1984 after Arkady Shevchenko, the highest-ranking Soviet official ever to defect when he left his position as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, defected in 1978. William Geimer, an American lawyer, had been working closely with Shevchenko, and established the foundation as a vehicle to promote the writings of the former Soviet diplomat and those of Ion Pacepa, a former top Romanian intelligence officer; with the help of the foundation, both defectors published bestselling books. The CIA Director William J. Casey helped back the formation of The Jamestown Foundation, agreeing with its complaints that the U.S. intelligence community did not provide sufficient funding of Soviet bloc defectors. The foundation, initially also dedicated to supporting Soviet dissidents, enabled the defectors from the Eastern Bloc to earn extra money by lecturing and writing.

According to its website: "The mission of the Jamestown Foundation is to inform and educate policy makers and the broader policy community about events and trends in those societies which are strategically or tactically important to the United States and which frequently restrict access to such information. Utilizing indigenous and primary sources, Jamestown's material is delivered without political bias, filter or agenda. It is often the only source of information which should be, but is not always, available through official or intelligence channels, especially in regard to Eurasia and terrorism." The Foundation describes its "unique ability to elicit information from those who have first-hand experience with the regimes and groups that threaten U.S. national security". It claims to have "contributed directly to the spread of democracy and personal freedom in the former Communist Bloc countries."

Board of directors

In the past, Jamestown's board of directors has included Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Jamestown's current board includes Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Bruce Riedel, who has served in the Bill Clinton White House and in 2009 was tasked by President Barack Obama to overhaul U.S. policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.