Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 20 – In another example of non-Russians connecting the dots between what is happening to them in Ukraine and what Moscow is doing to them at home, the Simple Man Tatar Telegram channel says that while Tatars die for Russia in Ukraine, Moscow and its collaborators in Tatarstan have taken another step toward the liquidation of the republic.
The telegram channel says that conclusion is inescapable given the failure of Tatars to object to Moscow’s demand that they disband the republic’s Constitutional Court. The next step, it says, will be the elimination of the republic’s constitution, and then the republic itself (t.me/ZapiskiProstogo/1173 and idel-ural.org/archives/likvidirovali-konstituczionnyj-sud-rt-na-ocheredi-po-vsej-vidimosti-sama-konstitucziya-tatarstana-a-vsled-za-nej-vsego-odin-shag-do-likvidaczii-respubliki/#more-13671).
The Russian Duma passed a law requiring this step in all the non-Russian republics that had one. All the others have already done so. Tatarstan was the last, but its surrender was abject with leaders saying they have no choice but to obey Moscow’s will and that after all Tatarstan managed to survive without a constitutional court in the past.
But the linkage between what the non-Russians are being asked to do in Ukraine and what rights they are losing at home is important for two reasons. On the one hand, it suggests that as the cost of service in Ukraine raise, ever more non-Russians will object to what they are being ordered to do at home.
And on the other, it is a sign that those who make such linkages are increasingly angry at officials installed by Moscow over them, viewing these officials not as their representatives but as agents of occupation, an attitude republic leaders may use to gain support in Moscow but one that almost certainly points to a radicalization of political views among their populations.
No comments:
Post a Comment