Tatar-Bashkir Service
RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service 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.
Website visits
(January–December 2022)
Facebook video views
(January–December 2022)
YouTube video views
(January–December 2022)
Instagram video views
(January–December 2022)
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 despite censorship since 1953.
Idel.Realii covers public corruption, religious extremism, and environmental issues.
Multimedia project “Eide!Online” teaches modern Tatar language online in response to increased Kremlin pressure to limit use of Tatar.
Produced a special visual project on Russian war casualties. Published a book “Saying No to War,” featuring 40 Russians telling stories of resistance amid harsh sentences.
Published investigative reports on “ethnic battalions” that the Russian regime formed to fight in Ukraine.
Monitors and maps rising Chinese influence with a microsite.
Four million people viewed the Service’s project about domestic violence and its effects.
Reaching Audiences
Media Climate
Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index ranks Russia 162nd out of 180 countries.
Radio Azatliq journalist Alsu Kurmasheva has been detained in Kazan, Russia, since October 18, 2023, while visiting her elderly, ailing mother.
Journalists frequently are subjected to harassment and threats; many freelancers are forced to leave the country for their safety.
Multiple contributors have been labeled as foreign agents. Police in Kazan, Russia searched homes of several freelancers and briefly detained them in August 2022.
Websites and social media accounts have been blocked or restricted.
Latest Updates
American RFE/RL Reporter Alsu Kurmasheva Tried & Convicted in Russian Court
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) called the ruling by a Russian court “a mockery of justice.”
Central Asia in Focus: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Claim to Foil Terrorist Plots
In this week’s edition: Kazakh and Kyrgyz authorities detain people suspected of having ties to terrorist groups, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention calls on Tajik authorities to…
Suppressing Karakalpakstan’s Sovereignty
Two years have passed since violence erupted in western Uzbekistan’s Karakalpakstan Sovereign Republic.
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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