Forum of Free Peoples of Post-Russia Urged to Create Permanent Executive Body Like Free Russia Forum Has

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 1 – Bashkir activist Ruslan Gabbasov urged the Fifth Forum of the Free Peoples of Russia at its meeting in the European Parliament to create a permanent executive body to act on behalf of the movements between sessions, much like the Russian liberals have done with the Free Russia Forum.

            Such an institution, he argued, will not only contribute to the development of the various republic and regional movements but allow the Forum itself to cooperate both with the Free Russia Forum and with other bodies such as the European Parliament and governments outside of the Russian Federation (idelreal.org/a/32247389.html).

            The declaration participants issued at the end of the session did not address this issue but instead called for the decolonization and denuclearization of Russia and the maximum possible demilitarization of Russia and the future independent states which are set to emerge on the territory now occupied by the Russian Federation.

            During the meeting which was hosted by two deputies of the European Parliament, participants, both in person and via the Internet, reprised their arguments on behalf of their own peoples, welcomed the support Ukraine has given them and pledged to support Ukraine in turn, and called on the international community to assist them.

            (For surveys of their statements, see kavkazr.com/a/predstaviteli-ichkerii-kalmykii-i-ingushetii-stali-uchastnikami-foruma-narodov-postrossii-v-evroparlamente/32249149.html, kavkazr.com/a/perspektivy-dokolonizatsii-i-postrossiya-predstaviteli-narodov-kavkaza-na-forume-v-evroparlamente/32252673.html, tatar-toz.blogspot.com/2023/01/blog-post_31.html and tatar-toz.blogspot.com/2023/01/blog-post_31.html.)

            The January 31 session was not without problems. On the one hand, the representatives of some nations and regions were angry that they were given far less time than others. And on the other, Tatar activist Rafis Kashapov was deported by the Belgian authorities before he could speak (idel-ural.org/archives/rafisa-kashapova-deportirovali-iz-bryusselya/).

            But what may have been the most important intervention at this meeting came not from one of the regional or national participants but from Anna Fotyga, one of the EuroParliament deputies who hosted the session. She said that the first duty of the world and the activists from Russia was to achieve the defeat of the Russian invasion in Ukraine.

            Only after that is achieved by joint efforts, she said, could the national and regionalist movements hope to achieve their ends through their own individual actions. Such a prioritization is unlikely to be what the participants of the Fifth Forum hoped for because it subordinates their cause to the Ukrainian one and makes any moves from abroad less likely in the near future.