Opponents of environmentally harmful production clashed with the Russian Guard

In Bashkiria, a struggle has unfolded against the industrial destruction of unique hills - the Kushtau Shikhan. The conflict almost resulted in a local civil war. The environmentalists were supported by Bashkir nationalists, while in defiance of them, trade union activists representing the interests of the Bashkir Soda Company wore armbands in the colors of the Russian tricolor.

Serious casualties were avoided during the confrontation only after the personal intervention of the head of Bashkiria, Radiy Khabirov, who managed to temporarily separate the parties.

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The conflict around the Kushtau shihan arose after a subsidiary of the Bashkir Soda Company, the Raw Materials Company, received a license to develop Kushtau until 2039 and had already begun cutting down forests at its foot. Ecologists, in turn, began to sound the alarm, fearing that the hill with a unique ecosystem would suffer the fate of the Shakhtau Shikhan, which was razed almost to the ground during the development of the Soviet and post-Soviet periods.

The confrontation took place over the past months, and by August 15 it turned into a real massacre: on the one hand, the hills were defended by several thousand activists, on the other, the leadership of the BSK (Bashkir Soda Company), through the Association of Trade Unions of Bashkiria, managed to mobilize a large number of people, including athletes, who , arriving by Bashtrans buses, with the help of the police and the National Guard, they demolished the protesters’ camp.

Activists stated that special equipment and stun grenades were used against them; the leadership of the Russian Guard denies the use of special equipment.

However, the destruction of the environmentalists’ camp did not affect the situation in any way; help arrived for the protesters, and the confrontation again escalated to the limit.

Tellingly, initially those protesting against the development of the Kushtau Shikhan raised the flag of Bashkiria, which allowed opponents to accuse them of local separatism. The trade union activists who opposed them arrived at the scene of the conflict wearing armbands in the colors of the Russian tricolor.

To remove the charge of separatism, many environmentalists also wore jackets with the Russian tricolor, but it is known that detachments of Bashkir nationalists took the side of the defenders of the shihans.

The conflict was calmed down only after the head of the region, Radiy Khaibrov, arrived on the scene.

Today, at an operational meeting of the government of the republic, the head of the republic thanked the parties to the conflict for agreeing to dialogue.

“You know that the BSK enterprise tried to start developing the Kushtau Shikhan, but they met quite strong public resistance,” Khabirov said. “This began to turn into a violent clash, which has already led to injuries to both protesters and law enforcement officers. It is unacceptable. An attack on internal affairs officers will be the subject of serious investigation. I will ask the Ministry of Health: look, there are two employees at the hospital, and in general, see if there are activists there. Pay attention to everyone!...I had to go there, and literally on the mountain we decided that she needed to be released.”

It should be noted that in support of environmentalists came the native of Ufa, rock musician, supporter of the liberal Russian camp Yuri Shevchuk and, recently, humorist Maxim Galkin, who often makes political and near-political statements, as well as the first president of Bashkiria Murtaza Rakhimov, who became famous for his separatist habits and forced Bashkirization region entrusted to him.

Shikhan Kushtau is one of four (Kushtau, Shakhtau, Yuraktau, Toraktau) unique reef hills located on the territory of Bashkiria with a multi-million-year history, which, among other things, are ecosystems inhabited by species listed in the Red Book. Shikhans are an integral part of the folklore of the Bashkir people. In Soviet times, the development of soda began on the Shakhtau Shikhan, as a result of which practically nothing remained of it.