Paul Goble
Staunton, June 19 – Relations between Russian liberals and non-Russian activists have never been easy because the former often act on the assumption that Moscow should be where decisions are made about the latter without the latter having a voice in the matter. There are now indications that the situation is getting more fraught.
A statement by Leonid Volkov, the leader of Aleksey Navalny’s regional staffs, is adding fuel to the fire (idel-ural.org/archives/obektivnyh-predposylok-dlya-separatizma-net-no-esli-on-vse-taki-sluchitsya-pochemu-ne-sleduet-priznat-pravo-etih-narodov-na-samoopredelenie-naskolko-serezno-sleduet-otnositsya/).
He suggests that “there are no objective bases for separatism” by the non-Russians; but that if it nonetheless happens, liberals ought to recognize the right of the non-Russians to self-determination, a position that some non-Russians see not as a concession but as an effort by Russian liberals to have it both ways on this issue.
The leaders of the Idel-Ural movement are explicit on this point. They argue that Volkov “is trying to sit on two stools, simultaneously playing on the feelings of those who back ‘a single indivisible Russia’ and sending a signal that self-determination in the Russian Federation will be possible if the Navalny people come to power.”
According to the Idel-Ural leaders, the former almost certainly is the one that will win out with even the liberals given that “after February 24,” the date of Putin’s massive invasion of Ukraine, “ideas about federalization of the RF have lost any importance” as far as the future of the country is concerned.
“It is already clear that Moscow will never allow real federalization and that whatever Russia it builds will turn out to be an empire.”
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