Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 25 – Stung by criticism that Russia remains an empire and must be de-colonized, Vladimir Putin selected Kazan to be the host city of the BRICS summit in a transparent attempt to seize control of the debate by suggesting that it is not the non-Russians but Moscow via its war in Ukraine that is really fighting colonialism, Vadim Sidorov says.
He is doing so, the Prague-based expert on the non-Russians within the current borders of the Russian Federation says, by arguing that the need for de-colonization has largely passed and that the challenge now is to fight neo-colonialism, something he says Russia and others in “the global South” are threatened by (idelreal.org/a/sammit-briks-kremlevskiy-antikolonializm-i-kolonizirovannye-narody-rossii-/33172929.html).
At the BRICS meeting in Kazan, the Kremlin leader achieved a great deal because those attending were happy enough to sign a declaration denouncing neo-colonialism which many of them believe they face and ignoring the continued existence of real colonial empires like the Russian, Sidorov argues.
But even if it is the case that some of those who signed this declaration are in fact victims of neo-colonialism, many, including both Russia and China, remain colonial powers whose treatment of minority nations within their borders fully corresponds to the classic definition of colonialism, he continues.
And their invoking of the need to fight neo-colonialism is nothing more than a transparent attempt by a clever sleight of hand to distract the attention of the world from and the possibility the nations under their colonial rule will achieve their independence, the Prague expert suggests.
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