"Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan. Bashkortostan may well be the site of another revolution-but we shall keep strictly within legal bounds," Ramil Bignov, Bashkir opposition Coordination Council chief, said to a news conference that had gathered the republic's opposition leaders in Moscow today.
The protest action they are launching aims mainly to attract federal authorities' attention to Bashkir problems, pointed out the speakers.
The Bashkir presidential staff premises will be picketed indefinitely, starting May 1. The pickets intend to pitch a shantytown in front of the building, announced united opposition leaders.
Mass picketing of Lubyanka Square, in Moscow's heart, has been scheduled for Thursday next, April 7. Activists have chartered a plane to come to the federal capital.
"No one will be taking our opposition in earnest if we have no funds, though we are well-knit and, in fact, have enough money-and we have backing not from other countries but from our own Bashkir business tycoons," Mr. Bignov emphatically said.
The united opposition is determined to abide by the law in everything it does. Bashkortostan is Russia's constituent entity, so all appeals will address the federal center, Anatoli Dubovsky, Rus bloc president, pointed out, in his turn.
"Many media outlets are referring to us as the Orange [to draw a parallel to the recent Ukrainian revolution]-but we protest only against corrupt Bashkir rulers. We are not posing whatever other goals," he added.
If Moscow shrugs off Bashkir public demands, protesters from among the people-in-the-street may eventually get out of opposition leaders' control, warned the conference speakers.
