Bashkir nationalists who participated in protests against the development of Mount Kushtau in 2020 began to create armed resistance – in response to mobilization and under the slogans of the republic's separation from Russia. This was told by "Layout" – the publication spoke with one of the leaders of the nationalists Ruslan Gabbasov.
The publication tells about two movements. On the one hand, this is the "Bashkir National Political Center", or "Bashnatspolit", which is headed by Gabbasov. On the other hand, anonymous Bashkir partisans who made themselves known against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. Thus, the publication refers to the anonymous Telegram channel “Committee of the Bashkir Resistance”, which was created on September 21, the day President Vladimir Putin announced “partial mobilization”. His first post read : “The channel was created to organize national resistance in Bashkortostan against the Putin regime. The time of rallies and marches has passed, now only Molotov cocktails and bullets for Putin's henchmen.
The partisans demand to stop the act of "hidden ethnocide of the autochthonous population" – that is, to stop mobilization in the Bashkir and Tatar villages. They call for setting fire to the military registration and enlistment offices, offices of United Russia and going underground. Officials do not comment on all these actions and statements.
Ruslan Gabbasov, with whom Verstka spoke, is the head of the Bashnatspolit organization, which was created at the end of 2021. This is the successor to the largest national organization "Bashkort", journalists say. It was also headed by Gabbasov, but in 2020 the movement was recognized as extremist. Gabbasov is one of the activists who organized a mass protest on Mount Kushtau two years ago.
Supporters of Gabbasov want to achieve sovereignty for Bashkortostan: for the region to secede from Russia and become an independent state, and with its own army. In his opinion, this army can unite with the armed forces of other republics if Bashkortostan becomes part of their union.
Already after the mobilization was announced in Russia, Bashnatspolit began to call for "going underground and waging a guerrilla war against Putin's government," Nestka notes. Messages appeared on the Telegram channel about the beginning of the creation of the Bashkir army.
Gabbasov told the publication that after the start of mobilization, many Bashkir activists left Russia, those who remained are hiding.
“They don't want to fight for the empire. They believe that this is not our war. Why should the Bashkirs die for the “Russian world” somewhere in Ukraine? The Ukrainians didn’t do anything bad to us, and the empire always crushed us. They crushed our Bashkir language, they imprisoned our leaders. Why do we have to fight for them now?” he says.