‘We want our own people in charge’ Residents of Russia’s Altai Republic protest Kremlin-driven reforms that strip local authority
Over the weekend, thousands took to the streets in Russia’s Altai Republic to oppose changes to the region’s constitution and a set of amendments eliminating local self-governance. Passed by regional lawmakers just days after the protests, the reforms do away with small, locally elected administrations. Officials say the move is simply meant to streamline bureaucracy. But in a region home to the Indigenous Altai people, the changes shift control over land use away from rural communities and into the hands of higher-level authorities. Holod Media reported on the protests and growing calls for the Kremlin to remove Governor Andrey Turchak — the son of a longtime friend of Vladimir Putin. Meduza shares an English-language version of their reporting.
On June 21, locals gathered in the capital of Russia’s Altai Republic, Gorno-Altaysk, for a rare authorized protest against an overhaul of the region’s local governance system. According to local activist Pavel Pastukhov, around 4,000 people took part; the Interior Ministry put the figure at a quarter of that.
“Even our spontaneous protests have drawn more people,” Sergey (name changed), one of the participants at the rally, told the independent Okno project. “Of course we expected thousands to show up for this permitted one — we would’ve filled that square in seconds.” He said that just a day before the protest, local officials raised the cap on allowed participants to 1,983. “We said that wasn’t enough — and we were right.”
At the heart of the protest were demands to restore the republic’s previous constitution and to remove Governor Andrey Turchak and members of the State Assembly — the regional parliament — if they approved legislation that would eliminate the region’s two-tier system of local self-government.
The regional authorities planned to adopt these amendments in line with a federal law on the unification of municipal governance, which President Vladimir Putin signed in March 2025. To comply, Turchak submitted a draft law to the Altai State Assembly in May that would dissolve rural municipalities and transfer their powers to higher-level administrations.
For residents in the region’s towns and villages, this means losing the ability to elect their own local leaders and resolve everyday bureaucratic issues close to home. The authorities argued that consolidating these functions would reduce the number of officials and streamline governance — replacing several small administrations with a single, centralized one.
Under the old system, rural deputies had influence over land use decisions, including the approval of general development plans for towns and villages. That’s especially significant in the Altai Republic, where roughly 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Under the new system, that influence is set to disappear.
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At the June 21 rally, Aruna Arna, an Altai activist, demanded Turchak’s resignation, declaring that the republic is “falling apart” and warning that for many protesters, “there is no turning back.”
“We have to tell the Kremlin that we do not accept appointed [regional leaders],” Arna said. “We want our own people in charge.”
Many protesters wore traditional Altai clothing and carried signs calling for the resignation of both Turchak and the acting chairman of the regional government, Alexander Prokopyev. Even veterans of the war in Ukraine joined the demonstration. The night before the rally, residents of Gorno-Altaysk reported Internet outages.
Protests against Turchak began on June 12, when demonstrators partially blocked traffic on the Chuya Highway. They unfurled banners calling for Turchak and Prokopyev to step down, including one that read: “Vladimir Putin, stop the lawlessness of Turchak and Prokopyev.”
Regional prosecutors declared the highway protest an “unauthorized public gathering” and jailed the organizers and six of the most active participants for 13 to 14 days. Turchak dismissed the protests, claiming that demonstrators had “disturbed the spirits” by allowing themselves to be led by provocateurs.
But the arrests didn’t stop the movement. Some Altai residents continued to stage solo pickets demanding Turchak’s resignation, while others posted protest slogans on trucks, including: “Oligarchs, hands off sacred Altai” and “Let’s protect Altai for our children.”
Remaking Altai on Moscow’s terms
Vladimir Putin appointed Andrey Turchak — whose father, Anatoly, is a longtime friend and judo sparring partner of the president — as acting governor of the Altai Republic in June 2024. A few months later, in September, Turchak won the official election with 74 percent of the vote — more than 55,000 ballots were cast for him. (The republic has just over 220,000 residents, making it one of the least populous regions in Russia.)
Prior to the local governance reform, a set of constitutional amendments had already been adopted in Altai under Turchak’s leadership. Most of the changes restructure the republic’s system of governance: for example, the region now has a separate government chairman, and the governor is no longer considered the guarantor of its constitution.
The same legislative package included other amendments with even greater implications for the region. One removed language from Article 2 of the constitution referring to the “territorial integrity” of the republic, leaving only a mention of its “unity.” In effect, the amendments eliminated any constitutional reference to the indivisibility of Altai’s territory.
For locals, the shift has raised alarms. Some fear the move could pave the way for the Altai Republic to be incorporated into the neighboring, larger Altai Krai, stripping it of its current political autonomy. Turchak has dismissed such concerns as “kitchen gossip” and baseless speculation.
He insisted the changes were merely administrative — necessary, he said, to formally divide the powers of the regional head and the government chairman for more “effective governance” and stronger representation in Moscow.
But Pastukhov argued that the new framework could open the door to the creation of zones within the republic that operate outside the control of local authorities — where major corporations and investors could effectively govern by their own rules.
“This kind of thing is already happening in the Sirius zone in Krasnodar Krai,” Pastukhov said, referring to an area on the Black Sea designated by presidential decree after the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which reports directly to the federal government rather than to local authorities. “There, local officials have no say. I think they’re trying to do the same here. It’s just like with the Russian Constitution — everyone was talking about ‘spiritual values,’ people voted for those, and meanwhile, the presidential term limits were reset.”
In the Altai Republic, residents say they’re already feeling the effects of unchecked development. Sberbank’s construction of a resort town in the Mayminsky District has triggered labor shortages across the region, according to the outlet Okno.
“Electricians, mechanics, other skilled workers — they’ve all left Gorno-Altaysk for the district,” a local resident told the outlet. “Salaries are higher there now, and it’s created a shortage in the capital. Add in those mobilized and the guys who signed military contracts [and] that number doubles. A lot of people from Altai signed contracts. Sure, some have come back — but in coffins.”
Turchak has said that although the federal deadline for aligning regional laws with the new standards is January 1, 2027, Altai plans to implement the changes much sooner — allegedly so that the next three-year budget cycle can be planned around a unified system with clear goals for both officials and residents. At a June 24 session, the Altai Republic’s State Assembly voted to approve the bill overhauling the region’s municipal system, despite the protests, the outlet 7x7 reported. Lawmakers also named Alexander Prokopyev chairman of the regional government, despite public opposition to his appointment.
