To Discredit Attacks on Empire, Kremlin Agents Promoting Three Extremist Views within Ranks of Anti-Colonial Movement, Magaletsky Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 5 – To combat anti-colonialism inside the Russian Federation, Kremlin agents are not only attacking it directly but promoting three forms of extremism within its ranks as part of Moscow’s effort to discredit those who seek more rights for their peoples in the eyes of residents of the Russian Federation and the world, Oleg Magaletsky says.

            These false images of anti-colonialism, the organizer of the Forum of Free Countries of Post-Russia says, consist of three main kinds: “ultra-nationalism,” “ultra-Islamism,” and “ultra-progressivism,” each of which the FSB helps to create in order to suggest that anyone opposed to the empire is an extremist (region.expert/3ultra/ and https://t.me/freenationsrussia/5546).

            Often this works at least as far as the image of the anti-colonial movement has in the West and in terms of the ability of its components to cooperate, but sometimes, the sorcerers in the FSB create a monster they can no longer control and then these advocates of extremist ideas gain real power, threatening both de-colonization and the empire itself, Magaletsky says.

            Those the FSB presents as ultra-nationalists want ethnically pure states, an impossibility now and an idea that opens the way to ethnic cleansing and expulsions. Those who are presented as ultra-Islamists undermine civic nationalism; and those who favor ultra-progressivism put anti-colonialism at risk of being captured by ideological movements not central to their goals.

            Both those genuinely committed to decolonization and those who support people with such aspirations need to recognize and expose this risk rather than taking at face value the idea what anyone who claims to be an anti-colonialist is an honest actor and reflects the views of the peoples in whose name he or she claims to speak.