The Bashkirs or Bashkorts are a Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Russia. They are concentrated in Bashkortostan, a republic of the Russian Federation and in the broader historical region of Badzhgard, which spans both sides of the Ural Mountains, where Eastern Europe meets North Asia. Smaller communities of Bashkirs also live in the Republic of Tatarstan, Perm Krai the oblasts of Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan and other regions in Russia; sizeable minorities exist in Kazakhstan.