There's quite a few sacred cows in Liberal Democracy. May I not remind you some of those because you can get banned just by mentioning them with not enough piety.
The state of political freedom in Tatarstan is pretty bad. It's "just" bad in Russia and somewhat worse in Tatarstan. Nobody is denying that.
But at the same time it is absolutely not a "dumpster fire". It is a thriving, economically developed region with somewhat high quality of life.
You seem see Russia as an concentration camp where people drag out their grey lives waiting for some miracle to happen and save them. That's not how they see it. People are just living their lives, seizing their day and trying to be happy, have some capital, etc, etc. They often have enough means for it even if the political regime leaves a lot to be desired. They would likely not want to bet all that stuff to get a breath of "Muslim democracy" such as the one Arab spring brought. They would like the real democracy if they're confident their medium-term quality of life will not suffer.
The state of political freedom in Tatarstan is pretty bad. It's "just" bad in Russia and somewhat worse in Tatarstan. Nobody is denying that.
But at the same time it is absolutely not a "dumpster fire". It is a thriving, economically developed region with somewhat high quality of life.
You seem see Russia as an concentration camp where people drag out their grey lives waiting for some miracle to happen and save them. That's not how they see it. People are just living their lives, seizing their day and trying to be happy, have some capital, etc, etc. They often have enough means for it even if the political regime leaves a lot to be desired. They would likely not want to bet all that stuff to get a breath of "Muslim democracy" such as the one Arab spring brought. They would like the real democracy if they're confident their medium-term quality of life will not suffer.