Section: Policy

Officials in Siberia have banned protests and rallies against a controversial referendum on Sunday to merge a smaller region, Ust-Ordynsky Buryat, home to the Buryat people, into the much larger region of Irkutsk. "Authorities are preventing any kind of discussion," Yevgeny Khamaganov, a local journalist claiming media censorship, said, according to The Moscow Times. Mr. Khamaganov, who opposes the project, said that police have accused him of being a terrorist and confiscated anti-merger leaflets in early April. Opponents say the Kremlin plans to reduce the number of oblasts � regions that correspond to American states � through mergers in order to further centralize power, a tendency of President Vladimir V. Putin's that has often been criticized by the United States and Europe.

Vremya Novostei, one of the few Russian-language papers covering the story, quoted the head of the Buryat republic, Leonid Potapov, as hailing the idea for its economic advantages. Mr. Potapov allayed fears of possible cultural dilution among the Buryat, and called the preservation of the people's traditions "a necessary condition" of the deal. The paper, described as pro-government publication, did not mention any opposition to the merger.