Imagine an American flag, whose bands would not be blue but green, and the stars replaced by snowflakes. Painted about ten years ago by the Siberian artist Damir Mouratov, this painting, named “United States of Siberia”, will it float one day at the UN, just like the Republics of the Urals, the Don, from the Pacific, from Lapland and other Lands of the Veps? This is what some “ethnic activists”, exiled abroad and increasingly active on social networks, hope. Their credo: the dismantling of the Soviet Union has not been completed, the Russian Federation is a failed project and the disintegration of present-day Russia could only improve the condition of these minorities (the Russian Federation has around a hundred of different peoples).
For Yulia Faïzrakhmanova, an activist in the Tatarstan independence movement, Russia – the last empire on the planet – must disappear because it will remain a threat, even if it suffers a defeat against Ukraine: “We don’t know who will replace Putin, she said. Nothing tells us that the same scenario will not repeat itself with his successor, especially if he learns from the mistakes and shortcomings of his predecessor…”
Russia, shattered empire
Hence the idea, put forward by some of these ethnic movements, to emancipate themselves definitively from Moscow. Balkanizing Russia? “Certainly, the fragmentation of the country would be risky, continues Yulia Faïzrakhmanova. Some of these new states would choose the democratic path, like the Baltic countries, others would follow the Iranian model, based on the oppression of women and LGBT people. But in any case, these peoples cannot remain the little brothers of the big brother forever.”
“In principle, national consciousness grows with rising living standards, says Russian political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann. When people have some stability and sufficient resources, they can reflect on their cultural, ethnic and regional identity. During over the past ten years, this process has also accelerated thanks to many factors, such as the decline in the popularity of the central power [Moscou] and the growth of domestic tourism.” The question of linguistic identity has thus become a powerful trigger for the rise of ethnic separatism, especially after the Kremlin removed local language courses from school curricula in 2018. intelligentsia from ethnic minorities strongly criticized this decision.A scientist from the Republic of Udmurtia even set himself on fire in protest.
Cultural racism
“On the one hand, Russia claims to defend the interests of the Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine, and on the other, it considers the ‘little peoples’ as second-class citizens because of their language, their dialect or their physical appearance. “, believes Buliash Todaeva, of the movement “Asians of Russia”, the largest gathering of ethnic groups on the Internet. According to him, “there is systemic nationalism and economic, social and cultural racism in Russia”. No one in Russia will be punished for a racist joke about skin color or eye shape. And real estate rental advertisements with the words “Slavics Only” are common.
Last September, the partial military mobilization particularly affected the poorest ethnic regions of the country, such as Tuva (eastern Siberia), where the standard of living is four times lower than that of Moscow. “War is the only social lift today, says Alexandra Garmazhapova, founder of the “Free Buryatia” foundation. But do you know why young Buryats go to fight? Mainly to obtain a mortgage loan and improve their lives. The Russian authorities indeed promise them large sums of money. In the event of injury or death, huge compensation (up to 150,000 euros) is paid to the families.
A platform to federate these movements
But some still prefer to engage alongside the Ukrainians. In Ukraine, there is a Bashkir platoon, but also the Caucasian Muslim Corps, a detachment from Yakutia, the Russian Freedom Legion and the Cheikh Mansour and Djokhar Dudayev battalions, two Chechen independence formations. That is nearly 2000 men. All united by a common idea: emancipation.
To federate all these energies, a platform was created: the Forum of Free Peoples of post-Russia, which brings together participants from the opposition, but also from national and regional movements in Russia. Its objective: “to change the administrative and territorial structure of post-Putin Russia”. A map has even been published: it includes several dozen “independent states”, including the famous “United States of Siberia”. Its founders? Two Ukrainians, Oleg Magalets’kyi and Oleg Dounda, respectively entrepreneur and deputy of the party of Volodymyr Zelensky – Servant of the People.
© / DR
Because kyiv encourages these movements in every possible way. At the end of last year, a draft resolution recognizing the independence of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan was thus presented to the Ukrainian Parliament. And last January 31, this Forum of Free Peoples of post-Russia held in Brussels, in the premises of the European Parliament, its fifth congress, under the aegis of the group of European Conservatives and Reformists. Among the participants, personalities as diverse as the Polish deputy Anna Elzbieta Fotyga (PiS), the former Chechen separatist military leader Akhmed Zakayev or the former Russian deputy Ilia Ponomarev, who emigrated to Ukraine in 2016. the platform organized an online (declarative) referendum for the self-determination of Siberia and four other regions: Königsberg, Kuban, Ingria and the Urals. Nearly 6 million people would have voted in favor of independence.
discrepancies
Independence ? Not all are of this opinion. “Those who draw fragmented maps of Russia discourage more moderate opinions,” said Alexandra Garmazhapova, of the “Free Buryatia” foundation, which campaigns for the creation of a “real” federation. “To those who want a free Buryatia, I answer: what political system? what economic model? What borders? What will you do with the 70% of Russians who live there? It’s also their home!” “The mere prospect of a Russia that would fragment pushes the undecided towards the Kremlin, opines Abbas Gallyamov. Incidentally, the former campaign manager of Vladimir Putin (2008 to 2010), who now lives in Israel, remarks that some “independent” experts of this Forum are also members of the Russian communist movement. “The presence of such characters on this platform calls for caution, he adds. It cannot be ruled out that the Kremlin is involved.” In fact, Vladimir Putin recently declared on a state channel that the only objective of the West was to liquidate Russia. And to add: “The fate of many peoples of Russia can radically change. I don’t even know if the Russian ethnicity can be preserved in its current form.” In its wake, state propagandists, such as Vladimir Solovyov, have taken up the theme of “ethnic catastrophe” and exploited it to the maximum to discourage independence tendencies If you want to sabotage a company, says a Russian saying, it is better to run it.