Following Objections from North Caucasus, Russian Government Comes Out Against Draft Bill that Would have Required All Compatriots Seeking to Return to Know Russian

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 22 – Four days ago, after widespread protests from activists in the North Caucasus, the Russian government said it opposed the adoption of a bill proposed by Konstantin Zatulin earlier this year that would have required anyone seeking to return to Russia under the compatriots program to know Russian fluently.

            The government statement declared that the proposed law duplicated provisions of a 2006 action and thus should not be adopted. That declaration makes it unlikely that the bill will even be taken up by the full Duma anytime soon (memorialcenter.org/news/pravitelstvo-rossii-ne-podderzhalo-zakonoproekt-o-repatriaczii).

            Circassian activists are taking credit for the Russian government’s decision not to support Zatulin’s measure, although they concede that this is only one skirmish in a long war (zapravakbr.com/index.php/30-uncategorised/1981-pravitelstvo-rf-v-ocherednoj-raz-ne-podderzhalo-zakonoproekt-konstantina-zatulina-o-repatriatsii).

            They have long insisted that a knowledge of Russian, something rare among the seven million Circassians living abroad, isn’t necessary if some of them want to come to the Circassian republics of the North Caucasus where Circassian is a state language according to the republic constitutions.

            They also point to the fact that some of the Circassian republics in the North Caucasus have programs to promote repatriation although they note that these programs are small and involve only microscopically small numbers, “a drop in the bucket” compared to the size of the diaspora.

            Moscow has long opposed the return of massive numbers of Circassians not only because such a development would change the ethnic map of the North Caucasus and re-energize Circassian efforts for international condemnation of the 1864 expulsion of their ancestors as a genocide and for the creation of an independent Circassian state.

            The Russian government has used a variety of measures to limit the return of the Circassians. Most recently, it has focused on language, given the centrality of Russian in Putin’s thinking. But now, the center will likely use other measures to achieve the same effect, something Circassians are very much aware of and will have to have to fight against.

            But a victory is a victory, and the Kremlin could have gone the other way. That it didn’t will certainly add new energy to the Circassian national movement at home and abroad to gain recognition for the genocide and to create a single Circassian republic in the North Caucasus in place of the divisions Moscow has imposed.