‘Without Russians as an Ethnos, Without the Russian People, There is Not and Cannot be a Russian World or Russia Itself,’ Putin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 30 – When Vladimir Putin pushed through the amendments to the Russian constitution and added the lines about the language of the state-forming people, in the minds of most Russians, he was making a not n their direction. But because he did not make explicit that the ethnic Russians were the state-forming people, many Russian nationalists were outraged.

            Now, speaking to the 30^th anniversary conference of the World Russian Assembly, the Kremlin leader has in effect made up for that neglect by saying that “without Russians as an ethnos, without the Russian people, there is not and cannot be a Russian world and Russia itself” (kremlin.ru/events/president/news/72863).

            That makes his latest remarks the clearest expression of Russian nationalism not only in the traditional sense but in an even more expansive one because he includes in the Russian nation not only those born to Russian parents but all those who speak Russian and who believe that their own freedom is dependent on the freedom of the state to act without constraints.

            “The Russian world is all generations of our ancestors and our descendants who will live after us,” Putin says. “The Russian world is Ancient Rus, the Moscow tsardom, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia which is reviving, strengthening and multiplying its sovereignty as a world power.”

            According to the Kremlin leader, “the Russian world unites all who feel a spiritual connection with our Motherland, who consider themselves bearers of the Russian language, history and culture regardless of their national or religious affiliations. Russia is more than a nationality,” and has always been so. It is “above all a responsibility” to preserve all this.