Regional and National Liberation Movements in Russian Federation Denounce Recent Russian Vote as Fraudulent

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 17 – It has long been a commonplace that elections of virtually any kind can inflame nationalist and regionalist sentiments in Russia. Even the fraudulent votes in the regional elections in the Russian Federation and in Russian-occupied portions of Ukraine have that ability.

            A sign of this is a statement released by 21 leaders of the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia denouncing the Putin elections as a fraud and reminding everyone that as long as Putin is in power, there cannot be any real expression of the popular will through ballot boxes the Kremlin controls (tatar-toz.blogspot.com/2023/09/blog-post_98.html).

            Below is an informal translation of this document:

“On September 8-10, 2023, pseudo-elections were held on the territory of Russia and the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, organized by the criminal Russian regime led by the international criminal Putin.

“Regionalist and national liberation movements representing indigenous peoples and colonized regions of the Russian Federation strongly condemn this fraudulent vote and do not recognize this brazen political farce.

“Carried out under conditions of war, the establishment of a dictatorship, the deprivation of citizens of democratic rights and freedoms, the liquidation of free media and civil society institutions, the use of political repression and reprisals against dissidents, the Russian pseudo-elections once again clearly showed that the aggressor state, the Russian Federation, has no future, that the Putin regime does not enjoy real support from the people and that it is living out its last days.

“The fraudulent vote, organized by the bloody occupation regime in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, once again demonstrated to the world community the entire chauvinistic nature of racism and the irrefutable fact that the Russian Federation is a terrorist country led by war criminals.

“The pseudo-elections of 2023 once again showed that resistance to the Putin regime and the struggle for independence of indigenous peoples and colonized regions of the Russian Federation are possible in different ways, including through forceful resistance, but definitely not through imitation of ‘a struggle’ within the criminal Putin system .

“We have extensive experience in the struggle for free, fair elections under the Putin regime and declare that fair elections in fascist Russia are impossible.

“The existence of this state in this form poses a threat to all civilized countries, and a necessary condition for guaranteeing peace is its complete dismantling through the creation of new independent states based on national republics and regions colonized by Russia.”