Paul Goble
Staunton,
January 22 – Russian nationalists in Stavropol Kray, angry that it has been
included in the North Caucasus Federal District and convinced that Moscow is
treating ethnic Russians as “second class” citizens, want their kray to become
an ethnic Russian national republic and thus equal in constitutional status to non-Russian
republics.
That
challenges the current political arrangements in the Russian Federation in the
unsettled north Caucasus, but the Stavropol activists want even more: they are
calling for the establishment of ethnic Russian republics in each of the seven
other federal districts as well, something would exacerbate inter-ethnic
relation in the country as a whole.
While
this proposal is unlikely to go anywhere – kray officials will be under particular
pressure to squelch it especially in advance of the Sochi Olympiad – the fact
that it is being advanced at all underscores just how angry many ethnic
Russians are about non-Russians and about what they see as the Kremlin’s
deference to them.
In
an article on the BigCaucasus.com portal today, journalist Svetlana Bolotnikova
says that Russian nationalists in Stavropol, having lost their 2010 bid to get
their territory out of the North Caucasus Federal District, now want the kray
to become an ethnic Russian National Republic (www.bigcaucasus.com/events/analysis/22-01-2013/82169-peredery-0/).
The
“spark” behind this decision was the murder of an ethnic Russian in Stavropol
by an ethnic Chechen who then fled to his home republic. According to
Bolotnikova, there will be demonstrations on Saturday in ten Russian cities,
including Stavropol, to call attention to what organizers see as “the worsening
status of the [ethnic] Russian people.”
The
situation has become so tense in Stavropol itself that Gvoernor Valery Zerenkov
has decided to break his past silence about ethnic issues. “We’ve had enough of the policy of minimizing
things,” he said. Our reports “must be objective” so that we can “develop an
effective system of defending peace and concord in the North Caucasus.”
And
the Russian governor added that in his view “preserving jobs for the longtime
residents [of Stavropol kray instead of allowing immigrants to take them] is
the task of the authorities.” To that end, he called for expanded patrols by
Cossack units and imposing immigration controls at the border of the kray with
North Caucasus republics.
Russian
activists in Stavropol are convinced that many of their problems would go away
if they were able to convince Moscow to move their kray out of the North
Caucasus Federal District, but failing that, they believe that what they need
to achieve is an elevation in the status of the territory to that of an ethnic
Russian national republic.
Sergey
Perederiy, a professor at Pyatigorsk State Linguistics University, told
Bolotnikova why he believes that is so. The problems have their root “in the
low status of the [ethnic] Russian people as a whole in Russia and in the North
Caucasus Federal District in particular,” and consequently that rather than
simply administrative arrangements must be addressed.
According
to the professor, “the legal and political status of Stavropol kray is not
equal to the status of the national state formations” in the Federal District,
and that “objectively has led to a situation in which Stavropol kray has been
converted into a donor region and a reserve zone” rather than a territory with
equal rights.
On
the one hand, Perederiy said, the ethnic Russians living there are concerned by
threats to their personal security given the inability of the law enforcement
organs to control migration. And on the
other, it is increasingly clear that this legal imbalance is “inevitably
weakening the positions of Russian statehood in the South of the country.”
According
to surveys he has conducted, the professor added, “every fifth Slavic family in
Stavropol is sitting on its suitcases,” that is, is ready to leave. “This
inevitably is generating some very serious consequences,” and they must be
resolved “not only in the framework of the North Caucasus Federal District but
also in that of the Russian Federation as a whole.”
At
the present time, Perederiy argues, “the [ethnic] Russian people is not
represented in the political, economic or spiritual spheres. It is not a
subject of political and other relations.
The Constitution does not include the word ‘[ethnic] Russian which
designates the national majority.” That
must be changed in order to give a new impulse to federalism in Russia.
“In
the 1990s,” he notes, “the [ethnic] autonomies received the status of
republics.” Going back on that, “as
certain people are proposing, “isn’t going to happen.” Instead, “it is
necessary to elevate the level of the territorial formations of the [ethnic]
Russian regions to the status of national state formations.”
Russia
has eight federal districts, and “consequently, there should be created eight
[ethnic] Russian republics.” This would
be entirely “normal,” and in the North Caucasus, there must be established a
Stavropol [Ethnic] Russian Republic.”
Unfortunately,
Perederiy continued, “the authorities do not know what to do. They are closing their eyes to what is going
on and think that everything will work out.” That is absurd as is the idea that
all the country’s citizens will become “[non-ethnic] Russians.” The
non-Russians will never agree, and therefore the Russians must insist on
getting equal status.
Bolotnikova noted that after the
North Caucasus Federal District was created, some people thought that Moscow
had done so “so that terrorism and the [Sochi] Olympiad would be in different
districts.” And she asked Perederiy
whether it might be the case that “after the Olympiad, there might be “a
change.”
He dismissed the idea and said it
was “an indicator” of how little the political leadership of the country
understands the situation. Stavropol and
other ethnic Russian regions need heightened status because otherwise Moscow
will continue to assume that it can treat them less well than it treats the
non-Russians.
According to the professor, “Stavropol
kray does not take part in many of the programs developed for the North Caucasus
Federal District.” It isn’t given the money the others are, and Russians there
are angry about that too. But Moscow
should be concerned as well if it cares about the future of the country.
The current situation “when 82
percent of the population who are [ethnic] Russians feel themselves to be third
class people,” who believe that “this country does not belong to them,” is absurd
and must be changed. “Many are
interested in keeping this situation and continuing to export wealth from
Russia. But these issues must be resolved; the time for that has come.”
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