For four days, the mobile Internet and social networks did not work in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Although the authorities vaguely explain the cutting off of the republic from the Internet, which was considered one of the most advanced in Russia in terms of digitalization, exclusively for technical reasons, mobile Internet and access to social networks were “turned off” due to the authorities’ fears of possible unrest in the region.
The reason for the explosive situation was the murder of 26-year-old Yakut Rustam Oev by 18-year-old Mahamad Odinaev, a Tajik migrant. The event happened on January 21, 2024.
A drunken stabbing after a domestic scandal in one of the nightclubs suddenly turned into explosive social tension. Two days after the events, the messengers were filled with angry information that a Yakut man had died at the hands of a migrant, the criminal was not detained, so it was necessary to gather in Yakutsk on Victory Square. The authorities urged “not to succumb to calls for illegal actions and not to spread unverified messages.”
Fearing a Bashkir scenario, the authorities found nothing better than cutting off mobile communications in Yakutia. And yet people came out, although security forces blocked access to all squares in Sakha’s capital, Yakutsk, and the entrances to the city were closed by police borders. More than fifty men gathered on the main square of Yakutsk, demanding a report from the authorities. The police called on the protesters to disperse. The Yakuts tried to march to another location – Lenin Square. Mass detentions have already begun there. More than 26 people were detained and brought to administrative responsibility. Russian Guard units were sent from Moscow for reinforcements by plane.
The authorities’ fears are understandable: Yakutia is one of the most rebellious regions in the Russian Federation. In 2023, Sakha hosted one of Russia’s largest anti-war rallies, the participants of which demanded an end to the war and the genocide of the Yakuts, where Russia carried out a brutal mass mobilization. Helicopters flew to remote villages at dawn and picked up men, and then sent them by airplanes. Moreover, when large-scale fires engulfed Yakutia in August 2023 (hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests burned due to the predatory and colonialist policy of the metropolis), Moscow did not provide air transport to combat the disaster.
The Yakuts, who after the collapse of the Soviet Union, only recently managed to exceed the number of Russians in the republic (Yakuts now make up almost half of the population, Russians – a third of the population), believe that Moscow deliberately threw young men to slaughter. After all, the country has long been dominated by anti-colonial sentiments and hostility towards the Russians, who, according to the Yakuts, mercilessly plunder this one of the richest regions in the world (82% of Russia’s diamond reserves, 61% of uranium, 47% of coal reserves, 35% of natural gas and oil of Eastern Siberia and the Far East). Most of the funds from mining settle in Moscow, and one of the largest countries in the world (the area of Yakutia is more than 3 million square kilometres) suffers from underdeveloped infrastructure, predatory prices for products, lack of proper conditions for raising and teaching children and treating adults. The bridge across the Lena in Yakutsk, which Putin and Medvedev repeatedly promised to build when he was President, never materialized. Therefore, when the Lena River thaws (about 150 days a year), Yakutsk turns into an island, where the prices of food and tickets rise incredibly.
Therefore, there are reasons to hate the central government. As well as the widespread opinion that it is worth gaining independence. Or rather, return it. In 1990, Saha once again announced the declaration of sovereignty. After Putin came to power, autonomy was actually destroyed.
Now after four days without the Internet, when the terminals suddenly stopped accepting funds, validators in public transport did not work, and drivers even dropped off children and beneficiaries who did not have cash with them, people could not buy the most necessary things in pharmacies and shops, servers from ordering tickets, dissatisfaction increased manifold.
The fear of repeating the events in Bashkortostan led the authorities to act extremely harshly. Although by the end of the week, all the protests were suppressed and the political opposition had long been neutralized, the situation worsened even more. Yakutia now resembles a ticking time bomb. The shutdown of the Internet outraged not only politically active citizens, but everyone. Economic activity was completely blocked, payment systems collapsed, hospitals could not receive calls because appointments were made via social networks and distance learning was interrupted in schools. The Yakuts could not contact their relatives, who were thrown into the war in Ukraine.
Public indignation at the actions of the central government and the inaction of local authorities knows no bounds. Even now, the majority of Yakuts believe that with such potential and external borders, an independent Yakutiya Sakha would better settle matters in the region. As a result, specialists from Moscow, who came to put out the fire, stirred up people’s discontent even more. And of course, no one has ever apologized for the fact that for almost a week, the fears of Moscow plunged Yakutia into a primitive communal system. Although it’s January outside, Yakutia now resembles the mouth of a volcano rather than the northern region in the permafrost zone…
Yuriy Syrotyuk
