PACE Suggestion that ‘Peoples Colonized by Russia’ Should have 30 Percent of Seats in New Platform of Russian Democratic Forces Sparks Controversy

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct.  11 – On October 1, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution calling for the creation at PACE of a platform for Russian democratic forces and suggested that 30 percent of the seats should be assigned to activists from the non-Russian nations currently within the Russian Federation (pace.coe.int/en/files/35684#trace-4).

            This provision came in response to lobbying efforts by the Ukrainian delegation at PACE and by the leaders of the movements of peoples colonized by Russia who argue that the democratization of Russia is impossible without that country’s de-colonization (echofm.online/stories/kolonizirovannye-rossiej-narody-poluchat-tret-mest-v-platforme-dlya-rossijskih-demokraticheskih-sil-pri-pase).

            Final decisions about the composition and functioning of the platform will be taken later this winter, but the call for setting aside a quota of 30 percent of the seats for non-Russian movements is already sparking controversy both among Russian liberals who had expected to completely dominate the platform and among non-Russian activists.

            Among Russian liberals, there are some who believe that forming an alliance with the national movements will help them achieve their goal of ousting Putin and Putinism; but there are others who think giving the non-Russian activists such a high percentage, one above the share many Russians believe non-Russians form will get in the way of that.

            And among non-Russian activists, there are some who are delighted to get that many and believe they can use the platform to gain additional support for their ideas; but there are also many who don’t like being forced into a minority position relative to the Russian liberals and say they won’t take part in the platform.

            Because of these divisions, the debate about the platform and the roles of Russian liberals and non-Russian activists in it is likely to be intense – and could torpedo this effort to get the two groups together, given that one side focuses largely on issues of democratization while the other is primarily concerned with decolonization.