Domestic Policy Failures Not Just Foreign Influence Behind Many of Russia’s Nationality Problems, Duma Deputy Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 9 – The new draft Russian government nationality policy document specifies that the main threats to ethnic peace in the Russian Federation are the result of attempts by hostile foreign powers to influence the situation there (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/06/new-draft-nationality-strategy-focuses.html).

            But Duma deputy Nikolay Doluda says “in fact, there are also internation shortcomings such as social-economic problems, insufficient amounts of information, and the lack of leaders of public opinon which are having no less a negative impact on the situation” (business-gazeta.ru/article/677077).

            The ethnic Ukrainian who earlier served as a Cossack ataman but has been a member of the Russian Duma since 2021 made that remark in the course of a session of the Russian parliament’s nationalities committee devoted to a discussion of the new nationality policy document.

            While most of the participants in this discussion lined up behind the government draft, others dissented in ways like Doluda and argued that Moscow needs to take positive steps to attract non-Russians to its side, including the construction of new mosques for Muslims in major cities.  

            These divisions in fact represent a step forward in that they highlight the fundamental differences within the Russian political class about what to do with the “nationality question.” And they may be a harbinger of real debates in the future about domestic policy as a whole and not just discussions on the margins.