Две истории защиты шихана Куштау: этноэкологическая мобилизация и издержки неопатримониализма

Полис. Политические исследования. 2024. № 3. С. 162–176.

Snarski Y.

In recent years a number of environmental protests in Russian regions has been on the rise, despite the shrinking political opportunity structure. In Bashkortostan republic, the Bashkir Soda Company’s (BSC) decision to develop the Kushtau Hill for soda ash provoked an environmental campaign for saving the mountain. The Kushtau Hill movement succeeded, despite the highly repressive response from regional government and its tight patrimonial link to the BSC – two conditions identified in the literature as unfavorable to protesters. How environmental discontent is successfully mobilised under a repressive government and embedded extractive practices? Drawing on semi-structured interviews with activists, I trace two interlinked pathways to successful mobilisation. The first one tells a story about the role national organisations play in sustaining environmental collective action. Under a shrinking opportunity structure for formal ENGOs, the Bashkir national organisation “Bashkort” provided the emerging movement with experience of informal organisation. Its leadership successfully linked ethnic grievances to environmental mobilisation by claiming the Bashkirs’ special relation to the mountain. However, ethnic and neighbour ties do not prevent a repressive response from the regional government due to a limited scale of such mobilisation. The second story is told about framing processes that expand the scope of potential supporters beyond particularistic ties. Protesters came up with perceived costs of neopatrimonialism to justify their demands. This framing put the republic head as a scapegoat who secured interests of federal centre and BSC, compromising the residents’ ecological well-being. Therefore, Kushtau Hill activists attracted new members, not putting themselves into danger of being perceived as extremists that targeted a regime-dimension. 

Keywords: Bashkortostan, этничность, национальные организации, framing, neopatrimonialism, неопатримониализм, фреймирование, экологический протест, environmental protest, environmental mobilisation, national organisations, Башкортостан, экологическая мобилизация