The year of 2020 Bashkortostan will be remembered as the year of ambiguous events around the mountain of Kushtau. The Bashkir soda company planned to use one of the four remaining mountains to keep extracting raw materials, which led to mass protests. Eco-activists camped on the slope of the Shihan mountains ; the police dispersed the camp which caused a huge public outcry not only in Russia but also outside the country. Radiy Khabirov, the head of the region, personally came to Kushtau and announced the completion of geological exploration activities. Subsequently, the government supported and actively promoted the status of Kushtau as a specially protected natural territory, a natural monument.
Kushtau became the focus of a photo project dedicated to proverbs. The model for the photo series is an actress of the Bashkir State Theatre named after M. The project was designed and released as a photo calendar for 2021 with illustrations made by Azat Kujin, a famous Bashkir-Polish illustrator, popularizer of Bashkir culture abroad. Design was provided by Ekaterina Kravtsova, an artist and participant of international residences.