Moscow’s Failure to Keep Its Earlier Promises on Federalism Means Few Ready to Rely on Any Promises It Makes Now

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 3 – As the Russian Federation acquired independence in 1991, Moscow made sweeping promises to respect the rights of the republics and regions within its borders and as a result separatist sentiment ebbed. But over the next 30 years, Moscow violated all of its promises in this regard; and as a result, few of them believe what Moscow says now.

            That is the conclusion that arises from a 5600-word commentary by journalist Darya Kucherenko for Memorial om how Moscow moved “From Federalism to a Unitary State” (verstka.media/issledovanie-o-tom-kak-rossiyskie-respubliki-poluchili-i-utratili-suverenetet reposted at zapravakbr.ru/index.php/analitik/1910-ot-federalizma-do-unitarnogo-gosudarstva).

            She details the way things have changed in each decade since 1991. In the 1990s, republics and regions were freer than they had been in Soviet times and were not afraid to challenge Moscow even on issues like the war in Chechnya, although most saw what Moscow did there as a sign that it would come down hard on any show of independence by them.

            In the first decade of this century, Kucherenko writes, the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin worked to reverse all of the progress of the 1990s, banning regional leaders from the Federation Council, eliminating the direct elections of governors, reducing the economic freedoms of the federal subjects, and imposing a common educational system on all of them.

            In parallel with these institutional changes, she continues, Moscow promoted xenophobia and allowed an ultra-right Russian nationalist movement to emerge, thus setting the stage for an even broader attack on the rights of the republics and even the regions. And in the second decade of this century, Moscow eliminated direct elections of governors, ended obligatory study of non-Russian languages, and inserted more central officials into republics and regions.

            Not surprisingly, by the third decade of this century, the 2020s, Moscow declared the existence of a Russian world in which there was no place for regional and republic differences. The center promoted Russian identity and attacked republican and regional ones, especially if this involved calls for decentralization or independence.

            Activists in the republics and regions have been radicalized by this trend. “If earlier they supported moderate views and spoke out in favor of federalism, now, many of them openly call for separation from Russia.” And they are receiving support from the OSCE and other international structures.

            “The peoples have awoken,” she quotes Bashkir activist Ruslan Gabbasov as saying. “They see a chance to get out from under the empire. Today, all liberal say that the regions must have more authority.  Therefore, I am certain that when the Putin regime collapses, even if we remain within the Russian Federation, we would receive powers no less than those of the 1990s.”

            But that is no longer enough, he says. “Over the course of 30 years, we have seen that what the center may give us, they will very easily take back.” We must act so that Moscow won’t have that opportunity ever again.