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
Radio Azatliq is an entirely digital alternative to Russian state media, providing uncensored news in local languages to audiences in the Volga-Ural region since 1953.
The Service reports on critical issues, including human rights, ethnic and religious minority challenges, and social unrest.
Through its regional project, Idel.Realities, the Service investigates public corruption, religious extremism, and environmental issues, reaching a broader Russian-speaking audience.
The Service has extensively covered Russia’s war on Ukraine, exposing the disproportionate death toll among regional citizens and analyzing malign recruitment tactics.
A recent Idel.Realities investigation revealed how the government of Bashkortostan is siphoning local budget money into construction projects in occupied Ukrainian territories. The Service also produced a special visual project tracking war casualties from Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine.
The multimedia project Eide!Online teaches modern Tatar language online in response to increased Kremlin pressure to limit its use.
Reaching Audiences
Media Climate
Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index ranks Russia 171st 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 mother. She was released in August 2024 after being wrongfully detained for over nine months.
Latest Updates
Radio Farda Returns to Shortwave, Bypassing Iran’s Digital Blackout
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has today resumed shortwave radio broadcasts into Iran following the imposition of an internet blackout by the Islamic Republic.
Journalists in Trouble: A Message from Recently Freed RFE/RL Journalists
In 2025, RFE/RL journalists Andrei Kuznechyk, Ihar Karnei, Ihar Losik, and Vladyslav Yesypenko were released from unjust detention, thanks to diplomatic efforts by the United States and its partners, and…
Journalists in Trouble: Vladyslav Yesypenko Visits Washington, D.C.
Vladyslav Yesypenko visits Washington, D.C.; vehicle carrying RFE/RL journalist hit by Russian drone; 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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