Moscow Only Predominantly Ethnic Russian Region Slated to be Present at PACE Forum

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 3 – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has announced plans to create a forum for discussion by representatives of the opposition in the Russian Federation. According to current plans, 30 percent of the seats will be allocated to representatives of the non-Russian nationalities.

            That has sparked complaints both among ethnic Russians and some non-Russians  as to whether that share is too large or too small and whether those peoples like the Chechens who have already declared their independence should be included in such a group at all (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/10/pace-suggestion-that-peoples-colonized.html and echofm.online/programs/opublikovano-na-ehe/opublikovano-na-ehe-chechenskie-naczionalnye-sily-prosyat-pase-sozdat-platformu-dlya-dialoga).

            But what has generally escaped attention is the fact that the only predominantly ethnic Russian region slated to be part of the PACE forum is the city of Moscow, an arrangement that Yury Shcherbachov makes it likely that the interests of predominantly ethnic Russian regions outside of Moscow will not be a focus (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=6909054CB0075).

            On the one hand, that reflects a Russian reality, one that infects the Russian opposition just as much as any other aspect of life in that country, that everything that matters is centered in Moscow. But on the other, it also reflects the acceptance of that view by many in the West, who make an exception for non-Russians but not for Russians in the regions. 

            But both are insupportable positions if Russia is to make a transition to a democratic state given that the non-Russian republics form only about 20 percent of the population while the predominantly ethnic Russian oblasts and krays outside of the Moscow agglomeration form more than 60 percent.

            If the opposition in the Russian Federation and those in the West who are interested in seeing it succeed and displace Putin’s autocracy fail to take this into account, they will undermine almost any chance that the Russian Federation will be able to develop in a more positive way than it has.

            Indeed, what PACE appears set on doing is a kind of repetition of the mistakes Western powers made during the Russian Civil War – providing not enough support for the non-Russians to win independence but just enough to allow Moscow to exploit Russian nationalism against them and prevent most of them from winning their freedom.