On January 13, the first president of Bashkiria will be buried with honors in Ufa

Late in the evening of January 11, the head of Bashkiria, Radiy Khabirov, confirmed the death of the first president of the republic, Murtaza Rakhimov. “Murtaza Gubaidullovich is gone. We bow our heads before the great son of the Bashkir people, who devoted himself entirely to serving the republic and Russia. Farewell, dear Murtaza Gubaidullovich,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.

On the morning of January 12, Khabirov signed a decree on the creation of a state commission for organizing the funeral of Rakhimov, which included the prime minister of the republic Andrey Nazarov, the chairman of the state assembly – kurultai (parliament) Konstantin Tolkachev, the minister of finance, the minister of culture, etc. At a meeting of the commission, which was held on the same day, its members discussed the issues of holding a mourning ceremony and perpetuating the memory of the first president of the republic, the press service of the head of Bashkiria reported. They clarified that farewell to Rakhimov will take place from 9.00 to 12.00 local time at the State Concert Hall “Bashkortostan”, a funeral rally is scheduled for noon. The funeral will take place at the Muslim cemetery in Ufa. “The head of Bashkortostan instructed the government of the republic, the state assembly – the kurultai of the region, the administrations of Ufa and the Kugarchinsky district to make proposals to perpetuate the memory of Murtaza Gubaidullovich Rakhimov,” the press service said in a statement. The publication mkset.ru reported that “some residents” of Bashkiria turned to Khabirov with a request to perpetuate the memory of Rakhimov – we are talking about renaming one of the streets of Ufa in his honor and installing a monument.

Moscow did not react to Rakhimov’s death, although many current authorities expressed their condolences in connection with his death.

For example, Senator Irek Yalalov wrote in his Telegram channel that Rakhimov “will forever remain in the memory of the people and the history of Bashkortostan.” The first president of the republic did a lot to preserve and increase the industrial, economic and cultural potential of the republic, accumulated over decades, State Duma deputy Dinar Gilmutdinov noted in his Telegram channel: “Being a political heavyweight, he was an active defender of the integrity of the country and the further development of Russia. Charismatic, far-sighted, bright leader and patriot of Bashkortostan.”

According to local media, condolences were also expressed by President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov and President of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania, as well as regional leaders – President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and Chairman of the State Council of the Republic Farid Mukhametshin, Governor of the Orenburg Region Denis Pasler.

Condolences were expressed by contemporaries of Rakhimov, for example, the President of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, and others. Kommersant reported that the first president of Tatarstan, the state adviser of the republic, Mintimer Shaimiev, who led it from 1990 to 2010, also expressed condolences.

The telegram sent to Khabirov says that “Murtaza Gubaidullovich’s long-term political, economic and social activities for the good of his native republic are worthy of deep respect and are an example of faithful service to his people,” the publication clarifies. Shaimiev also mentioned in the telegram that the supreme authorities of the republics had settled “difficult problems in the time of perestroika.” “We were connected not only by business, but also by friendly, fraternal relations, as well as between our peoples,” Shaimiev noted.

Rakhimov headed Bashkiria in 1990 as chairman of the Supreme Council of the Bashkir ASSR, since 1993 he became the president of the republic. He held his position until 2010. He became the second regional heavyweight after Shaimiev to retire in 2010 under President Dmitry Medvedev, who started a serious rotation in the governor’s corps. Rakhimov resigned a year before the end of his term of office (in 2011).

The president of Tatarstan, who resigned in 2010, was able to transfer power in the republic to a successor, essentially his deputy, with whom he had worked for many years, and Rakhimov was replaced by a federal appointee, notes Konstantin Kostin, head of the Civil Society Development Fund: “This fully characterizes the difference in relations with the federal center at that time, which is based on the assessment of the personnel situation”. Rakhimov finally announced his resignation during a conversation with the president at the Bocharov Ruchey residence.

But not every head of the region was awarded such a set of honors: for example, the mayor of the capital, Yuri Luzhkov, was dismissed by decree in October of the same 2010 due to a loss of confidence (he died in December 2019). The resignation of the Bashkir leader was arranged correctly, despite the fact that he had rather tense relations with Moscow.

Shortly before leaving office, in 2009, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper published an interview with Rakhimov under the heading “Dissident of the Republic of Bashkortostan”, in which he criticized Moscow (for “excessive centralization”) and United Russia (it is “trying to steer by people who didn’t even command three chickens”). Such words of a member of the supreme council of the party caused serious dissatisfaction among its own officials. Of course, harsh statements were due to the fact that Rakhimov feared for the loss of power, partly justified: for example, Khabirov, who was expelled by him at that moment from the regional administration, having worked on Staraya Square, has now returned to his homeland.

And although then, during the discussion of the terms of the resignation, Medvedev expressed the hope that Rakhimov would continue to work for the good of Russia, he rather distanced himself from the federal center, and did not return to serious posts. After leaving the post of President of Bashkiria, Rakhimov was chairman of the board of the URAL Charitable Foundation, which controlled the proceeds from the sale of OAO ANKBashneft”, and from 2010 to 2012 – a member of the board of directors of this oil company. But he criticized the center later. But Bashkiria, following the call of Chechnya, after Rakhimov’s departure from office, like other regions, also abandoned the “symbols of power”, for example, the title of “president” for the head of the republic. So far, only Kazan insists on its preservation.

Shaimiev and Rakhimov, the leaders of the Volga national republics, had a similar personnel trajectory, but different tactics, Vitaly Ivanov, a political scientist and regionalist, believes: the federal center, both resisted the implementation of federal guidelines, referring to their sovereignty. But, characteristically, says Ivanov, after the resignation of Rakhimov, his people were also removed, and the republic was headed by Rustem Khamitov from “RusHydro”, which was “categorically undesirable” for the first president, while Shaimiev was able to maintain authority.

The reason was that Rakhimov in places acted more rudely than his Tatarstan colleague – Shaimiev was an “experienced nomenklatura cadre”, while Rakhimov was a former director of an oil plant. “The difference in backgrounds, the difference in approaches gave different results. Shaimiev retained his authority in the eyes of the federal center, and therefore he was allowed to maintain influence to a certain extent, and Rakhimov was simply forgotten,” Ivanov emphasizes.

Rakhimov never had serious influence at the federal level, and this distinguished him from the elites of Tatarstan, who for years built the connections they needed, Rostislav Turovsky, vice president of the Center for Political Technologies, objected. “He was essentially a lone authoritarian leader, with big ambitions and no team. Therefore, Rakhimov was easily removed from power (after his departure), and the assets in the republic went to the federal players, ”the political scientist said.

Shaimiev’s leadership in the region was in the nature of a “nationalized hierarchy” and there was no “personnel revolution” in Tatarstan, since he took his post after the chair of the first secretary of the regional party committee, while Rakhimov came to power through the internal destabilization of the republic as a compromise figure for different groups, says political scientist Alexander Kynev. The “regime” established in the republic was personalist. “Naturally, as soon as such a figure leaves, it all ends, because there is no other stable figure but him,” the expert noted. According to Kynev, Bashkiria had fewer opportunities than Tatarstan, since the latter could act as an active force, and Bashkiria “was actually represented by one person.”

Now there are no more former heavyweights among the heads of regions from the 1990s, only retirees remain: Nikolai Merkushkin (Mordovia and Samara Region), Alexander Zhilkin (Astrakhan Region), Evgeny Nazdratenko (Primorye), Eduard Rossel (Sverdlovsk Region), Yegor Stroev (Orlovskaya region), Valery Shantsev (Nizhny Novgorod region), and others. In this row, and resigned only relatively recently, in 2018, the head of Kuzbass Aman Tuleev, says Turovsky. “But he has almost no power left,” he notes.