Paul Goble
Staunton, June 11 – Many ethnic minorities and diasporas in the Russian Federation have their own national cultural autonomies, organizations intended to provide a sense of community and to engage in various forms of social and publicistic activity. But there is one that is especially interesting because it challenges Putin’s vision and his policies.
That is the National Cultural Association of Belarusians in Moscow and the all-Russian federation of which it is a part because the group promotes Belarusian identity even though the Kremlin leader denies that Belarusians are a separate nation and is seeking to promote a union state that will effectively absorb Belarus into the Russian Federation.
And this conflict between what the Belarusian groups in the Russian Federation are doing and what the Kremlin says it wants makes a new article on the Nazaccent portal, “The Belarusians of Moscow Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” especially intriguing (nazaccent.ru/content/38444-belorusy-moskvy-vchera-segodnya-zavtra.html).
While most of its activities are unlikely to cause the Putin regime concern – such as public shows, holiday celebrations, and dance groups – three are more problematic: the linking of ethnic Belarusians in the Moscow elite with newly arrived Belarusians, the promotion of the Belarusian language, and the maintenance of an active Internet portal at belros.org/.
Russian officials not surprisingly view NCAs as a means of integrating non-Russians into Russian society and in many cases there is little doubt that they do just that. But the Belarusian one is nonetheless worth attention because it would seem under the circumstances to be supporting an identity that Putin is not prepared to admit even exists.
No comments:
Post a Comment