Many Know Non-Russians has Suffered Out of All Proportion from Putin’s War in Ukraine but Few are Aware Many of Them have Protested Against It, Buryat Activist Says

Paul Goble

    Staunton, May 1 – Many people of goodwill around the world are well aware that non-Russian nations within the Russian Federation have suffered disproportionately from Putin’s war in Ukraine, but very few know that many non-Russians have left Russia to avoid serving in his army and/or otherwise protested the Kremlin ruler’s actions, Seseg Jigitova says.

    The Berlin-based Buryat illustrator and activist hopes to overcome that by means of a new illustrated novel, Deep Freeze, so that everyone involved will have a comprehensive picture of how non-Russians have reacted to Moscow’s actions (themoscowtimes.com/2025/05/01/we-need-to-recognize-russias-colonial-violence-buryat-illustrator-seseg-jigjitova-a88922).

    In an interview with Leyla Latypova of The Moscow Times, Jigitova says that far too many people both inside Russia and beyond its border consider only the Russians as historical subjects and think about the non-Russians only in terms of Russian actions toward them rather than nations ready and able to take action on their own.

    Over the course of recent decades that has begun to change, she continues; but this shift in perspective among many non-Russians, some Russians and some in the West has accelerated over the last three years since Putin launched his expanded invasion of Ukraine. One can only hope that will continue.

    But unfortunately, many among those known as “the Russian opposition” have not been able to make this self. Instead, they have continued to live “in a parallel reality detached from the rest of Russia.” Indeed, “it seems they have drifted even further away from reality since 2022,” a trajectory that makes it increasingly difficult for non-Russians to cooperate with them.

    “I often ask myself whether unity within Russia – or indeed any kind of internal civil truth or alliance – is possible at all without a clear and honest recognition of history wrongdoings by Russia and its predecessor states and without it taking ownership of a difficult legacy and without justice [for indigenous people].”

    For any such unity to occur, Jigitova continues, “we need to recognize Russia’s colonial violence and take both collective and personal responsibility for having done too little to prevent the war in Ukraine. We must also recognize that the conviction that Russain identity is superior over all others … was one of the reasons for today’s war.”

    No one must ever be allowed to forget that “Putin is a symptom of this and not the cause.”

    As far as the future is concerned, she says she has hope and envisions a Buryat republic “where all people regardless of ethnicity are free. A republic where people know how to exercise their fundamental rights, understand and respect its difficult history, and live free from Moscow’s exploitative grip. A republic [in short] whose fate is determined solely by its people.”