Paul Goble
Staunton, June 13 – After a Russian veteran of Putin’s war who had joined the nationalist Russian Community attacked a Buryat woman in Moscow thinking that she was an immigrant rather than a Russian Federation citizen, Aleksey Tsydenov, the governor of Buryatia, suggested that Buryats should always carry their passports to avoid being misidentified and abused.
Tsydenov’s statement is available online at astra.press/english/2025/06/14/9074/. Details about this specific attack which ended without serious injury are available at astra.press/russian/2025/06/10/8992/, astra.press/english/2025/06/11/9024/ and astra.press/english/2025/06/12/9043/.
Three aspects of this situation make it noteworthy. First, it shows that nationalist groups like the Russian Community are moving from going after immigrants to going after anyone who doesn’t have a Slavic appearance, a step that risks making interethnic relations in the Russian Federation far worse.
Second, it suggests that despite some reports to the contrary, veterans of Putin’s war in Ukraine are in fact joining the Russian Community and apparently playing a role in its radicalization, thus making a group that had the reputation for not engaging in attacks of this kind one that is doing exactly that.
And third – and this is far and away the most important – the head of a non-Russian federal subject has taken what must be an almost unprecedented step of declaring that the risks to members of the titular nationality of his republic are now so great that they must always have their passports with them to show that they are citizens and not immigrants.
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