Foreign agents banned from being nominated for Gabdulla Tukay State Prize

The regulations on the state prize of Tatarstan named after Gabdulla Tukay have been amended — now participants will be required to provide information confirming the absence of the status of a foreign agent, the corresponding decree has been signed by the president of the republic, Rustam Mininkhanov.

“A person recognised as a foreign agent in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the Russian Federation, as well as a team of authors, which includes such a person (includes such persons), cannot be nominated for the State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan named after Gabdulla Tukay," the document says.

Now the prize winners will have to provide information from the foreign agents registry, which will confirm that they do not have such a status. If a person awarded the Gabdulla Tukay Prize is recognised as a foreign agent, they will be excluded from the list of laureates.

The decree comes into force on December 1, 2022.

April 26 is the birthday of the great Tatar poet and educator, Gabdulla Tukay, the founder of classical national poetry, one of the fathers of the Tatar literary language.

This April, the prize was awarded to master of the technique of tapestry weaving, Anatoly Egorov — for his great contribution to the development of decorative and applied art of Tatarstan, for the cycle of tapestries “Over Kazan Moon”. He also worked on the series dedicated to the poem “Kyyssai Yosyf”, Sviyazhsk and Nikolay Feshin. His works can be seen in the House of Foreign Specialists and the Almetyevsk Palace of Oil Workers. He was one of the most likely candidates for the award.

Another prize was awarded to a children's writer, author of many poems, fairy tales, plays Lemon Leronov (Lyabib Leron) for books for children "Җil koymese” (The boat-traveler) and “Akiyatche malay” (The boy-storyteller). Writer Labib Leron is also a laureate of the Shaikh Mannur, Abdullah Alish, Fatikh Husni and Musa Jalil awards, editor-in-chief of the magazine “Beznen Miras”, ran for deputy of the State Council of Tatarstan in the 2019 elections. It was not the first time he was on the list of candidates for the Tukayev Prize — he appeared on the list last year.

In September, Lenar Shaekhov, a children's writer from Tatarstan, editor-in-chief of the Tatar Book Publishing House, became a laureate of the Honorary List of the International Children's Book Council (IBBY) — 2022. The opening of the congress of this council took place on September 5 in Putrajaya (Malaysia). Shaekhov was awarded the title of laureate for the work in the Tatar language “Galya has a kitten” (“Galinen pesie”). Russian author Eduard Verkin, illustrator Anastasia Arkhipova, translator Olga Varshaver also became laureates.