Kyiv Creates Commission to Help Ethnic Minorities in Russia and to Advance Their Cause Internationally

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 24 – Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has set up a temporary commission to work with the national movements of the numerically small and indigenous peoples of Russia and to promote their cause internationally by pointing out that the world will be a safer place if the Russian colonial empire is demolished.

            The commission consists of 11 deputies and is headed by Yaroslav Yurchishin of Golos and Mariya Mezentseva of Servants of the People. It has already had its first meeting at which these goals were announced (radiosvoboda.org/a/news-rada-tsk-korinni-narody-rosii/32563163.html and abn.org.ua/en/news/the-first-meeting-of-the-enslaved-nations-of-russia-commission-took-place-in-kyiv/).

            The members indicated that they plan to draw on the work of the Council of Europe and the OSCE in their work both directly with the peoples themselves and with foreign governments and organizations (kavkazr.com/a/novaya-komissiya-v-verhovnoy-rade-namerena-pomochj-kavkazskim-narodam-vyyti-iz-pod-gneta-rossii-/32563312.html

            The creation of this commission represents the latest step in Kyiv’s efforts since 2014 to reach out to the non-Russians within the Russian Federations, nations which Ukraine views as its natural allies in fighting Muscovite imperialism. (For background on this effort, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/07/captive-nations-week-marked-for-first.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/06/kyiv-must-carefully-design-its.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/12/russias-regions-not-just-its-non.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/05/ukrainian-parliament-calls-for-new.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/04/non-russians-inside-russia-more.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/12/kyiv-to-focus-attention-on-moscows.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/11/moscow-sanctions-ukrainian-deputy-who.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/10/ukraine-raises-stakes-its-parliament.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/10/ukrainian-president-calls-on-non.html and jamestown.org/program/zelenskyy-defines-putins-russia-as-an-evil-empire/.)