Tatarstan: The autonomy of a quasi-state in Russia

The Russian state was subject to strong regional centrifugal forces in the 1990s. In addition to facing armed secessionism in Chechnya, Moscow also had to deal with Tatarstan, whose leaders demanded a special relationship with Russia under the banner of "sovereignty." As the political-economic stability and territorial integrity of the Russian state came under threat due to processes of political-economic institutional change in the 1990s, it was uncertain where Tatarstan's 'sovereignty drive' would end.; This dissertation analyzes the relations between the Russian executive government and the executive government of Tatarstan between 1990 and 2000, and the political-economic and interethnic relations inside Tatarstan during the same period. The analysis in the dissertation has an interdisciplinary approach, and tests five hypotheses against empirical evidence drawn from both qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary sources.; Tatarstan became a quasi-state within Russia in the 1990s. This happened due mainly to the separatist policies the Shaimiev government of Tatarstan designed and pursued both inside the republic and vis-a-vis the Russian central government in the 1990s. In Tatarstan, the Shaimiev government established a populist-authoritarian political rule, which became embedded in nationalist and autarkic economic policies. There was no interethnic conflict in the republic between the Tatars and Russians, the two main ethnic groups residing in the republic because of the cross-cutting cleavages in the republic's population, and the policy of mostly civically oriented territorial identity cultivated and promoted by the republican government.; Moscow accommodated Kazan's separatist policies and secessionist threats by signing a power-sharing treaty and a dozen intergovernmental agreements with it in February 1994. Although Tatarstan was given a special status and many political-economic privileges within the Russian Federation as a consequence of this deal, the Shaimiev government continued to build on its separatist policies. However, an overt conflict between Moscow and Kazan between March 1994 and March 2000 was averted due to their political territorial exchange relationship. This Moscow-Kazan political relationship was based on the Shaimiev government's delivering federal election results in the republic desirable for Moscow, and Moscow's overlooking and accommodating Kazan's separatist policies and threats.