Putin’s Formulation about the Language of State-Forming People in Fact a Way for Him to Avoid Referring to Russians, Konstantinov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 5 – There is nearly universal agreement that Vladimir Putin has introduced an amendment to the Constitution making reference to the Russian language as that of the state-forming people as a backhanded way of boosting the status of the Russian nation. But one Moscow activist and commentator argues that such conclusions are wrong.

            Daniil Konstantinov, who played a major role in protests over election falsification in 2011, says “the Kremlin fears the Russian people. Referring to anything else except it is fine – the Russian language, the state-forming people, but only not to the Russian people” (rusmonitor.com/daniil-konstantinov-pravyashhij-rezhim-yavlyaetsya-v-pryamom-smysle-rusofobskim-antinaczionalnym-antirusskim-okkupaczionnym.html).

            “I do not believe that [the powers that be] really fear the reaction of the national minorities, many of the representatives of which relate to the Russians in a completely loyal way and easily will adapt to the official strengthening of its status,” he continues. The constitution isn’t doing away with the republics so for them, “everything is in order.”

            What that means, Konstantinov says, is the reason for Putin’s circumlocution lies elsewhere. “The Russian people as a subject of political life, frightens them. Consequently,” he argues, “the ruling regime is in a direct sense Russophobic, anti-national, anti-Russian, and an occupier.”

            And Russians should recognize this and deal with the regime in a corresponding way.

            One need not accept Konstantinov’s argument – most Russians don’t -- to realize what it means. If Putin does not follow his proposed amendment language with a less convoluted statement in support of a special role for the Russian people in Russia, he will face more questions like Konstantinov’s.

            But if the Kremlin leader does, he will face another set of questions both from the non-Russians who are suspicious of his intentions already and from Russians like Konstantinov who believe, especially as Putin restores more of the Soviet past, that the man in the Kremlin is someone other than their own.