Online Referendum Seeks to Measure Support for Possible Independence of Five Regions in Russia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 4 – Sometimes the fact that a question is asked is more important than any answers that are forthcoming, with the query itself sparking greater interest in the question and even possible action in support of realizing the answers to a question some may not earlier have asked themselves.

            That seems to be the case with a new online referendum concerning the possible independence of five regions within the current borders of the Russian Federation – Ingriya (the area around St. Petersburg), Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad), Kuban, Siberia and the Urals (referendum2023.site/).

            The organizers of this effort do not provide much information about themselves although they do root their effort in the UN declaration on the rights of peoples to self-determination and do promise to keep the names and IP locations of those who take part confidential lest those involved be subject to reprisals.

            Despite these assurances, it is likely that even many of those who support such regionalist efforts will not take part; but again, the response that matters most is not how many do but how many more conclude that regionalist challenges to the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation are not only possible but growing.