Part of Liberal Russian Opposition Now Ready to Cooperate Closely with Regionalist and Nationalist Groups

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 28 – Most liberal Russian opposition, whose members overwhelmingly come from Moscow but now live abroad, typically want little or nothing to do with their regionalist counterparts, let alone nationalist groups which aspire to independence from Moscow for their nations.
    On the one hand, this division means that the liberal Russian in most cases to cooperate with regionalists and nationalists not only takes Muscovite positions which are in many cases almost indistinguishable from those of the Kremlin but loses the opportunity to draw on the energy of opposition groups beyond the ring road.
And on the other, it means that regionalists and nationalists, having failed to win acceptance from the Russian liberals, often are excluded by governments in the West from the kind of contacts and support officials in these governments are prepared to extend to the liberals (e.g., windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/02/munich-security-conference-invites.html).
    (For background on this problem and occasional efforts in recent years to overcome it, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/11/russian-and-non-russian-opposition.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/12/russian-liberals-unwillingness-to-drop.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/07/russian-liberals-and-non-russian.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/09/russian-opposition-and-regionalists.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/03/russian-liberal-opposition-moves-closer.html).
    And on the other, regionalists and nationalists having failed to win acceptance from the Russian liberals often are excluded by governments in the West from the kind of contacts and support officials in these governments are prepared to extend to the liberals (e.g., https://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/02/munich-security-conference-invites.html).
    Now,  one of the most prominent liberal Russian opposition structures, the Congress of Peoples Deputies of Russia, appears set to expand cooperation with h regionalist and nationalist forces (idelreal.org/a/ilya-ponomaryov-sobiraet-svoy-maydan-udastsya-li-soyuz-horoshih-russkih-s-natsionalno-osvoboditelnymi-dvizheniyami/33217982.html).
    Ilya Ponomaryov, whose brainchild the Congress is, has proposed creating a new consultative body that would include not only Russian liberals and regionalists but also nationalist groups that have declared as their goal the achievement of state independence from Moscow.
    His proposal which remains to be fleshed out and about which there is far from complete agreement even among his allies – they’ve already rejected his call to label the group “a maidan” -- will be taken up by the Congress at its next meeting in December. But his ideas are certainly music to the ears of regionalist and national liberation groups.
    Ponomaryov says that for his part, he and his allies don’t want to promote the disintegration of Russia but that “on the other hand, regions and national republics which want to become independent” should have such an opportunity “because we are talking about a new country in the future, a Russian Republic.
    Now and in the immediate future, the liberal Russian opposition leader continues, “the congress and the national liberation movements” can work together as “equal partners,” especially as there is much common ground for action and many problems about the future to be discussed.
    According to Ponomaryov, the republics most likely to leave are Chechnya and Sakha. What will happen in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan is far from clear, and “the most complicated region” in this regard is Dagestan.  He added that liberal Russians simply don’t know whom the people will support in many places – and it is their voice which must be heard and followed.