Tatar-Bashkir Service
Radio Azatliq is the only major international news provider reporting in the Tatar, Bashkir, and Russian languages to audiences in Russia’s multi-ethnic, Muslim-majority Volga-Ural region.
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About the Service
Despite censorship, Radio Azatliq is an entirely digital alternative to Russian state-controlled media, reporting in local languages and reaching audiences in the Volga-Ural region since 1953.
Reporting focuses on human rights, ethnic and religious minority issues, the challenges of official war propaganda, individual freedoms, gender inequality, cases of social unrest in the region.
Radio Azatliq’s regional project Idel.Realii covers public corruption, religious extremism, and environmental issues for the wider Russian-speaking audience.
Multimedia project Eide!Online teaches modern Tatar language online in response to increased Kremlin pressure to limit its use.
The Service produced a special visual project tracking war casualties from Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine.
Radio Azatliq’s new talk show Inside-Out challenges anti-Western and anti-American propaganda.
Reaching Audiences
Media Climate
Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index ranks Russia 162nd out of 180 countries.
In February 2024, RFE/RL was designated an “undesirable organization” by Russian authorities. Russian citizens face up to five years in prison for cooperating with “undesirable” organizations or aiding in their financing within Russia.
Multiple contributors have been labeled as foreign agents. Police in Kazan, Russia searched homes of several freelancers and briefly detained them in August 2022.
Radio Azatliq journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was detained in Russia on false charges in October 2023, while on a visit to care for her elderly, ailing mother. She was released in August 2024 after being wrongfully detained for over nine months.
Latest Updates
Marc Thiessen and Ilan Berman Join RFE/RL Board of Directors
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is pleased to announce that Marc Thiessen and Ilan Berman have been appointed to serve as members of the Board of Directors.
Trump Administration Secures Release of Radio Liberty Journalist Andrey Kuznechyk from Detention in Belarus
RFE/RL welcomes news of Andrey’s release and is grateful to the American and Lithuanian governments for their support.
Central Asia in Focus: No Rights in Tajikistan
In this month’s edition: Tajik authorities display a diminishing care about international criticism over human rights; Russian authorities consider charging fees for remittance transfers; and more.
Service Director
Rim Gilfanov
Rim Gilfanov is the Service Director of RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service, known locally as Radio Azatliq. He began reporting for the Service in 1990 as a stringer and later as a broadcaster covering ethnic and religious minority issues. Gilfanov previously wrote for the Kazan newspaper Donya, and has published several books, including “Tatar Diaspora” (Kazan, 1993) and “Tatar Way in Reforming Islam” (Prague, April 2003). He is frequently interviewed by local Tatar media outlets. Gilfanov graduated from Kazan State University in 1991 with a degree in sociology and political science.
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