Russian Community Should Avoid Becoming Too Close to Local Officials but Retain Ties to Kremlin, Kholmogorov Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Mar. 20 – While the debate continues as to whether the Russian Community organization is simply an adjunct to the militia or is becoming an alternative force structure, Yegor Kholmogorov says it must remain independent of local officials but retain close ties to the Kremlin in order to do its job.
    Avoiding capture by local officials, the Moscow analyst and commentator says, is important because otherwise those officials will direct what the Russian Community organizations do and limit their ability to act in defense of the ethnic Russians (ura.news/articles/1036290909).
    And he suggests that the best way for the Russian Community to avoid such an outcome which would geld it is to develop and maintain close ties with the Kremlin which is far more committed to defending the Russian nation than are many of the governors of Russia’s more than 80 federal subjects.
    This is one of the clearest indications yet that the Russian Community is a Kremlin project rather than an independent one and that Putin intends to use it not only against unofficial opponents but as a check on local officials, much as Ivan the Terrible used the Oprichniki and Nicholas II the Black Hundreds.
For background on the increasingly important Russian Community organization, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/11/russian-community-organization-and-its.html,  windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/10/extremist-russian-community-now-active.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/10/another-black-hundreds-group-revived-in.html and jamestown.org/program/russian-community-extremists-becoming-the-black-hundreds-of-today. .