‘National Accent’ Portal Suggests Five Events Affected Ethnic Life of Russia in 2019

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 30 – Ethnic issues are typically specific to a particular time and place such as the rise and suppression of Ingush protests about the border deal with Chechnya. These matter enormously to the Ingush and may matter others as well, but some developments often less widely covered that begin by addressing broader issues may matter more.

            The National Accent portal has identified five such developments that are already affecting ethno-national life in the Russian Federation and that are likely to cast a shadow on the future as well. One could disagree with both what it includes and what it doesn’t, but it does provide a useful point of departure (nazaccent.ru/content/31886-itogi-2019.html).

The five events Nazaccent lists and explains are the following:

1.      The passage on first reading of a new law defining the register of indigenous peoples.  The second reading is scheduled for January.  It defines three categories of people in the North: “those who can confirm their national identity, live in places traditional for that, and conduct a traditional way of life,” those who meet the first two but not the third, and those who don’t meet the first two but do meet the third. It sets different benefits for each.

Nazaccent sees this as a major step forward ignoring the difficulties some in the North have faced in proving their nationality (cf. windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/11/moscows-system-of-special-benefits-for.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/12/to-protect-national-security-moscow.html).

2.      Cossacks officially unified with Putin naming all-Russian ataman. In order to solidify the status of Cossacks as a social stratum rather than an ethnicity, Moscow has worked hard to unify all the Cossacks it recognizes in a single organization committed to being a social stratum working to defend the state rather than a nation with its own goals. 

Nazaccent welcomes this because it believes the officially registered Cossacks will play an increasing role in helping the police and in controlling protests.  But the official structure ignores the real aspirations of most Cossacks who very much see themselves as a nation (cf. windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/12/cossacks-launch-petition-drive-to-be.html and this author’s “Cossackia: No Longer an Impossible Dream?” Jamestown Eurasia Daily Monitor, February 21, 2019 at  jamestown.org/program/cossackia-no-longer-an-impossible-dream/).

3.      Moscow spent a record one million US dollars in 2019 to support ethnic media.  And Vladimir Putin signaled that he expects to see the mainstream media devote more attention to ethnic issues.

Moscow’s spending on ethnic media works about to about four cents per capita among Russia’s non-Russians and comes at a time when the center has ended much of its support for many non-Russian publications and textbooks and is cutting back in the amount of school time spent on and in non-Russian languages (cf. windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/12/moscow-now-fining-regional-media-for.html,  windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/12/moscow-destroying-ingush-language.html, and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/11/moscow-intensifies-efforts-to.html).

4.      ‘The Yakutsk shaman as a sign of neurosis’ among Russians. Aleksandr Gabyshev, the shaman warrior from Sakha who began a walk to Moscow to exorcise the evil spirit of Putin, “despite all its parody, is a litmus test of the obvious neurotic state of present-day Russian society” in which many either passionately support or passionate oppose this “ethnic freak.” Both “show emotional ill-health,” Nazaccent says.

In fact, the shaman shook Russian society precisely because he found a way to tap into the anger of the population about what is going on and provided the kind of focus on those responsible that the Kremlin finds totally unacceptable (cf. windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/07/will-shaman-from-sakha-do-what-russian.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/12/shaman-now-boxed-in-by-powers-in-sakha.html, and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/10/for-shaman-yakutsk-residents-protest.html).  

5.      Twenty years after its creation, Federation of National Cultural Autonomies finally receives state support. The Federal Agency for Nationality Affairs has now allocated 100 million rubles (1.5 million US dollars) for this group.

Many hoped and others feared the national cultural autonomies could be a stepping stone to the abolition of the non-Russian republics, but most of have proven vestigial and given little basis for either these hopes of fears. In many cases, they have been captured by wealthy members of the national communities and used to promote their personal agendas rather than the interests of the nations (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/11/russias-national-cultural-autonomies.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/02/putin-using-salami-tactics-to-destroy.html).