People in Russia’s Regions and Republics Now Describe Themselves as Moscow’s Colonies, Slabunova Says

Paul Goble

Staunton, August 9 – On the 30^th anniversary of Karelia’s Declaration of State Sovereignty, Yabloko leader Emiliya Slabunova says that people in the regions and republics of Russia now feel compelled to describe themselves as colonies of Moscow because Vladimir Putin’s policies have made such documents a dead letter.

Formally, she points out, the document remains in effect; but the current Kremlin leader has so gutted its provisions that little is left but a memory that officials ignore and few in the population talk about. Instead, both groups increasingly see themselves as colonies of the center (region.expert/karelia90/).

That is the flip side of Putin’s construction of a centralized power vertical that controls almost everything, but it may ultimately prove the move important because when people view themselves as colonies in today’s world and the political unit of which they are a part as an empire, the question inevitably arises as to when they will cease to be colonies.

In many respects, US President Ronald Reagan’s description of the USSR as “the evil empire” played the key role in the demise of that imperial state because even those who didn’t share his view that it was evil came to see that it was an empire and recognized that in the 20^th century, empires have no future.

Today, unfortunately, few Western leaders are willing to be as accurate in describing the Russian Federation as an empire; but its own people and some of its political figures are again doing so, a development that in the 21^st century will make its survival impossible however much brute force the center uses to maintain itself.