OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly Declares Russia a Colonial Empire

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 6 – At its meeting in Vancouver, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has declared Russia to be “a violent imperial and colonial” state that threatens the peoples both within the borders of the Russian Federation and those beyond.

            Specifically, the OSCE declared that ““The violent imperial and colonial character of the Russian Federation is fully manifested in its unprovoked and illegal war against Ukraine, and also expressed in the soft annexation of Belarus, the occupation of the territory of Georgia and the support of separatism in Moldova” (oscepa.org/en/documents/annual-sessions/2023-vancouver/declaration-29/4744-vancouver-declaration-eng/file).

            And it concluded that Moscow’s imperial nature is also manifested “in in the forceful, permanent and conscious subjugation of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities within the Russian Federation who are denied equal rights and self-determination and who are subjected to violent and exploitation in violation of the Declaration of Helsinki and the UN Charter.”

            Activists among the non-Russian peoples see this as a victory for their campaign against Russian imperialism and fully expect that such international recognition, rare if not unprecedented at the level of international organizations, will encourage the peoples now within the borders of the Russian Federation to seek their rights.

            Vika Maladayeva, an activism with the Indigenous Peoples of Russia organization, says that what the OSCE has done represents “a powerful signal of support” from the international community to the submerged peoples of the Russian Federation and to those who have already gained their independence from Moscow (doxa.team/news/2023-07-06-empire).