Russia’s Disintegration Not Required for Its Future Well-Being but Its Coming Apart Must be Possible and Any Union Voluntary, Ethnic Russian Opposition Figure Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 17 – After Yuliya Navalnaya accused those seeking independence of trying to “artificially divide” peoples who have “a common background and cultural context,” the leaders of regionalist and ethno-national movements reacted with fury. But leaders of the ethnic Russian opposition did not, a pattern that suggests they agree with her.

            But one of the members of the latter, Yevgeniya Chirikova, a prominent member of the Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition, now has and says bluntly that while “the disintegration of Russia is not a requirement for future happiness,” it must remain a legal possibility because regions and republics must remain in Russia only on a voluntary basis.

            The activist who has lived in Estonia for the last decade made that point on YouTube (youtube.com/watch?v=dgJozCHhmAM) and has reiterated it in the course of an extensive interview with the IdelReal portal (idelreal.org/a/evgeniya-chirikova-o-dekolonizatsii-rossii-s-kakoy-stati-russkie-hotyat-reshat-za-drugih-/33122167.html).

            Putin’s repressive and exploitative approach to the regions and republics within the Russian Federation has led ever more of them to think that the only solution for themselves is independence, Chirikova says. If the leaders coming after him want these regions and republics to remain within Russia, they must treat them differently.

            To be successful, she continues, they must treat the regions and republics with respect, not make decisions about them without them, and demonstrate their commitment to the well being of these regions and republics by allowing them to become independent if the latter decide that they are not being treated well.

            Many ethnic Russians in the opposition say that the country must not disintegrate because there are so many ethnic Russians in the republics, but there are ways to deal with that including referendums, Chirikova says. And she points out something else: Many ethnic Russians in the republics support independence because that is the only way they see to defend their values.

            What has happened in the Baltic countries and what is happening in Ukraine now show why, she continues. Moscow threatens the former and has invaded the latter because they have chosen a different course, democracy not dictatorship and cooperation with the world rather than unrelieved hostility.

            Those aren’t ethnic values; they are human values. Putin doesn’t respect them, but the leaders who come after him must. As long as Putin remains in power and if his successors fail to break with his policies, republics and regions will want to escape from Moscow’s rule. Some may want to even if Moscow does change its approach.

            But many regions and republics may be willing to remain in Russia if they are guaranteed better treatment and if their fright to free exit when they want to is ensured, Chirikova concludes. Otherwise demands for the decolonization of Russia will only intensify, exacerbating a vicious circle in which repression will lead to decolonization efforts and those to more repression.

            And that expansion of repression, she warns, will hit ethnic Russians at least as much as the non-Russians, however much Putin and his team try to suggest that the situation is otherwise.