Hello and welcome to Regions Calling, your guide to developments beyond the Russian capital from The Moscow Times.

This week, we invited Zarema Gasanova, an Indigenous Avar activist from the republic of Dagestan, to write a guest column about the push to develop tourism in her home republic. She argues that this tourism boom is yet another expression of Moscow’s colonialist mindset — and one that brings few material benefits for Dagestanis themselves.

But first, here’s what else you missed from the regions:

A delegation from the Taliban arrived in Kazan, the capital of the republic of Tatarstan, on Wednesday for the Russia – Islamic World: KazanForum to discuss trade and agricultural partnerships with Russia. Delegations from 27 countries are expected to take part in the forum.

Several republics in Russia’s North Caucasus have announced multimillion-ruble government contracts aimed at promoting what the Kremlin calls “traditional values,” including religious lectures in schools and conferences on patriotism and morality.

A man known as “Sasha Kon” who was attempting to walk from Russia’s Ryazan region to Brazil while pulling a homemade 300-kilogram (660-pound) cart was reportedly killed in a drone attack in the Bryansk region near the Ukrainian border.

A man from Siberia’s Tyumen region who went viral after ending up inside a coal freight car after a night out was fined about $27 for violating railway safety rules, local media reported. 

Dmitry Klimov, 22, had posted a video saying he had been drinking at a bar in his hometown of Ishim before somehow “ending up in a coal wagon” that brought him to the regional capital Tyumen some 250 kilometers away.

Krasnoyarsk region authorities introduced emergency livestock controls and highway checkpoints in two districts over reports of a disease outbreak in neighboring Kemerovo region, even as local officials denied any epidemic and disputed reports of mass cattle culling. 

The move follows earlier controversial livestock seizures in the Novosibirsk region, where residents and farmers accused authorities of withholding information about possible outbreaks of pasteurellosis or foot-and-mouth disease.

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‘Send Him 2-3 Years to Dagestan and Forget’

Over the past five years, the republic of Dagestan has become one of the fastest-growing destinations for domestic tourism in Russia. The Covid-19 pandemic, followed soon after by the invasion of Ukraine, airspace closures and growing economic instability, pushed Russians who once enjoyed vacations abroad to search for cheaper and more accessible alternatives at home.

Dagestan, a republic in the North Caucasus, emerged as one answer. 

Russia’s tourism industry markets Dagestan as a place of dramatic natural landscapes, distinctive local traditions and an “undiscovered” culture waiting to be experienced.

It’s a strategy that has proven effective. The republic is now one of the most sought-after destinations........

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