Word: tatarstan
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When more than 60% of Tatarstan's voters spurned the last-ditch appeals of Russian President Boris Yeltsin and said a fervent yes to sovereignty last week, many Russians saw an ominous parallel. Recalling Mikhail Gorbachev's futile struggle to preserve the motley amalgam of nations forged into the Soviet Union, they feared that their own Russian Federation might be heading for disintegration. "We are not only on the brink of a crisis," said Valeri Zorkin, chairman of the Constitutional Court, "but on the edge of an abyss...
...autonomous republic of Tatarstan, 500 miles east of Moscow and larger than all three secessionist Baltic republics, is one of more than 30 ethnic enclaves within the federation. The region, where the predominantly Muslim Tatars make up only 48% of the population, is rich in oil and home to major industries, including Kamaz, the world's largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer. In his 1990 presidential campaign, Yeltsin challenged Tatarstan to "take as much sovereignty as you can swallow." But surely he did not expect his listeners to take such a decisive bite...