At the meeting in Ufa, April 16, 2005
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The Opposition Replaced at the Demonstration
// By supporters of Murtaza Rakhimov in Ufa
The Fight for power
The local opposition was to hold a meeting in Ufa on Saturday to demand the resignation of Bashkortostani President Murtaza Rakhimov. At the last moment, that event was called off, however, and in place of the opposition, 5000 supporters of the president appeared crying “Hands off Murtaza Rakhimov!” Some observers called the switch a “demonstrative operation to disempower the opposition,” which could become an example for the rest of Russia.
Saturday's meeting was to have been the fifth one organized by the Bashkortostani opposition. A campaign began in the local media a week ago accusing the opposition of preparing to “overturn the constitutional order.” The prosecutor's office initiated a criminal case for “public appeals to commit extremist actions” and forwarded it to the local department of the FSB. The heads of two private security companies that had guarded the opposition members were warned of the unacceptability of participation in “antigovernment meetings.” Local television startled Ufa residents with reports of preparations for rioting, since the opposition had invited radical nationalist organizations from neighboring regions and “Limonovites” [members of the National Bolshevik Party, headed by Eduard Limonov]. At the same time, flyers were distributed in Ufa appealing to “patriots” to come at the same time and place as the opposition meeting to “defend the president.”
“When we found out that an alternative action in support of Rakhimov was being planned by the local administration and head of educational institutions, we decided at the last moment to cancel our action to avoid violence between the ideological opponents and we began to inform everyone of the change,” Ramil Bignov, head of the coordinating committee of the united opposition, told Kommersant. The opposition sent law enforcement agencies a warning of possible violence if the two meetings were held simultaneously in one place.
The response from law enforcement was curious. On the morning of the day of the action, the three main organizers of the meeting were summoned to the FSB office to give evidence. Two of them, Bignov and leader of the Rus movement Anatoly Dubovsky, appeared, expecting a short conversation. But the interrogation lasted five hours, that is, until the central square in Ufa was emptied. The third opposition leader, Airat Dilmukhametov, was forcefully brought in from the square itself.
At the same time, several thousand people filled the central square in Ufa and began chanting slogans in support of the president. According to information obtained by Kommersant, the crowd was brought in from various areas of Bashkortostan in about 130 buses. There were still some opposition members left on the square at the time who had not found out about the cancellation of their meeting and they escape unharmed only by a miracle.
The meeting was attended by speaker of the State Assembly Konstantin Tolkachev and head of the Bashkortostani presidential administration Rady Khabirov. The orators tried to “convince the country that the majority of Bashkortostan is not against, but is for Rakhimov,” protested against “contract coups d'etat” and called on the crowd to “eradicate the orange filth.” Young people in black armbands, members of the Eurasian Youth Union” were especially enthusiastic. Their leader, Pavel Zarifullin, told Kommersant that his movement was trying to “save Russia from the foreign-financed orange plague… We are already resisting Yushchenko in Ukraine,” he boasted. “and in Bashkortostan our presence is significant.” He promised to hold “military-patriotic games” in the republic that would include military preparedness and “hand-to-hand combat and methods of partisan warfare.”
Attendees of the meeting passed a resolution calling for the republic not to be turned into a “training ground for methods of overthrowing the legitimate authorities in Russia.” Several political scientists called the vent “the know-how of the authorities in their fight against the opposition.” Rakhimov thanked his supporters and called the opposition member adventurists. “The people of Bashkortostan are not thirsting for a revolution. They don't need any seizure of power. They need peace and sufficiency,” he told journalists.
Bignov said at his own press conference that he was “shocked that the authorities took such an open risk, ready for a face-to face-clash between its opponents and supporters.” He said that he intended to file for a criminal case to be initiated for the unauthorized meeting. He may become the accused, however. Igor Chernokov, head of the Bashkortostani department of the FSB told Kommersant that opposition leaders are so far being considered witnesses, but “charges may be pressed against some of them as organizers or executors and accomplices in the distribution of appeals of an extremist nature.”
Gulchachak Khannanova
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 18, 2005
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