Paul Goble
Staunton, April 23 – Ruslan Kutayev, the head of the Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus and one of the five non-Russians on the Russian Platform at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, says the best option for the peoples of the North Caucasus is the restoration of a single Mountaineer Republic from the Black to the Caspian sea.
In a wide-ranging interview to Ukraine’s Rizniy lyudi, he argues that each people there has the right to declare independence but that they will be better able to maintain it against Russian aggression is they create a common state (ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/23/ruslan-kutaev-mi-kavkaztsi-v-moskve-postavim-takuyu-vlast-kakaya-nam-udobna-a193444).
(For background on efforts to revive the Mountaineer Republic of 1918-1919, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2017/04/moscow-unwittingly-promoting-broader.html and jamestown.org/resurgent-dreams-of-independence-in-the-north-caucasus/ and sources cited therein.)
Two other comments by Kutayev are especially important as well. First of all, he says, that the members of the Russian Platform have not addressed yet the issue of the possible disintegration of the Russian Federation but that when they do, it is certain that there will be a variety of opinions rather than any clear agreement.
And second, he argues, those who think Putin has acted on his own as far as aggression against Ukraine and other non-Russians are wrong. In reality, Putin has simply carried out what most Russians believe and want because they are followers of “the religion of Russian nationalism, which is called the ideology of the Russian world.”
No comments:
Post a Comment