Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 5 – The Russian
Federation Council has approved a bill that calls on the country’s
national-cultural autonomies to expand their activities by getting involved
with the social adaptation of gastarbeiters and other immigrants, a move few of
them are prepared to undertake but one that raises their profile compared to
the non-Russian territorial republics.
On the one hand, as leaders of the
non-Russian republics certainly understand, this could be the first step in a
Moscow campaign to downgrade the non-Russian republics or even abolish them,
with Russian officials arguing that the national-cultural autonomies can do everything
the republics are doing.
But on the other and precisely because
of that danger to their own existence, non-Russian republics are likely to try
to develop even closer relationships with the national-cultural autonomies of
their ethnic groups and use such links to bring additional pressure to bear on
Moscow or at least to block moves against them.
As Elena Meygun notes in her report
on Nazaccent.ru today, “at first, [under the terms of the legislation which
created them] national-cultural autonomies were established for the
preservation of the ethnic culture” of members of nationalities who form
minorities in particular regions and cities (nazaccent.ru/content/13742-novye-gorizonty.html).
“The logic of the [new] legislation
is clear” and redefines the nature of these bodies at least potentially because
many are unlikely to want to take up such duties. According to a poll
Nazaccent.ru conducted last summer, she says, they aren’t “burning with a
desire” to take up “such a burden.”
And those few that are only want to
work with immigrants of their own ethnic group. Thus, the Roma national
autonomy wants to work with Roma and the Ukrainian with Ukrainians. At least
for the time being, none of them is going to feel compelled to change direction
because as one leader pointed out, the law doesn’t require them to do so but
only gives them the chance.
Moreover, the new legislation does
not provide general funding for this effort. Rather, individual
national-cultural autonomies are urged to apply for presidential grants. Some
will receive them and some won’t. If the state wants this done, Amil Sarkarov,
the head of the Moscow Lezgin group, it should “stimulate this activity” by
funding it.
Unless that happens, these groups
are unlikely to do much, Meygun suggests. Most are underfunded and inactive in the
best of cases, according to research by Magomed Omarov, a professor of
political science at Moscow State University, and in many places only experts,
the government and five percent of the population even know they exist.
Obviously, Omarov says, the state
needs to make use of such civil society institutions to help solve Russia’s
problems, but it is unlikely to find the national-cultural autonomies capable
of doing much unless it gives them more prominence and more resources. Many
republics will be against that, thus setting the stage for new conflicts
between them and the center.
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