I don't quite get why "country" in the title here is in quotes - even though not an independent state, it's a country the same way Wales or Scotland is a country.
I wish this could be shown higher. Sadly they have already replaced "country" with "region" despite it in fact is a country like Scotland is (or at least a state like California is).
By the way Tatarstan, another country in the Russian Federation even is officially a "sovereign state integrated with Russia". There even are such things as citizenship and constitution of Tatarstan.
