Russia Will Continue to Inflict More Violence on Its Peoples and the World than Demise of that Muscovite State would Entail, Buryat Activist Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 23 – The Kremlin and most of the Russian opposition insist that the decolonization of the Russian state will involve more violence than its preservation, Anna Zuyeva says; but in fact, that state now and in the future regardless of who controls it will continue to inflict far more violence on its own people and on the world.

            And even if the departure of some republics and regions does involve some violence because pro-Moscow forces, including many now in the opposition will resist, the Buryat activist now living in exile in Estonia says, “a horrific end is better than horrors without end” which will be the case if the Muscovite state continues to exist.

            In an extensive interview with the Sibreal portal, Zuyeva makes a number of additional noteworthy points. First, she says targets of repression in republics like Buryatia are identified by local siloviki and then confirmed by Moscow because locals know the situation better (sibreal.org/a/kak-zhurnalistka-iz-buryatii-otkazalas-zhit-po-pravilam-imperii/33629303.html).

            Second, she says that the Russian opposition may be against the war in Ukraine and against Putin; but they are not prepared to break with the Kremlin over the maintenance of Russia in its current borders and will thus set the stage for a recrudescence of violence and aggression however “democratic” they promote themselves as being.

            And third, Zuyeva, whose teenage son now speaks Estonian and goes to an Estonian school, says she won’t return to live in Buryatia even if it does become an independent state. Estonia is now her home, she says; and while she will visit Buryatia, neither she nor her son is ever likely to live there.