Career FSB Officer who heads Russia’s Agency for Nationality Affairs Demands International Community Stop Trying to Speak in Defense of His Country’s Minorities

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 16 – Igor Barinov, a career FSB officer who now heads Russia’s Agency for Nationality Affairs and whose staff includes at least 13 others drawn from Russian security agencies, is demanding that the international community stop trying to speak in defense of his country’s ethnic minorities.

            At the 19^th session of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples held in Geneva this week, Barinov called  on the international community to adopt “a depoliticized approach” regarding indigenous rights and complained about “the lack of objectivity” in the mechanism’s research regarding Russia.

            (For details on his speech and background on his FSB service and his use of other security agency officers in the bureaucracy responsible for overseeing Moscow’s approach on ethnic minorities, see t.me/fadnrf/6838 as discussed at echofm.online/news/rossijskij-chinovnik-v-zheneve-prizval-depolitizirovat-zashhitu-prav-korennyh-narodov-ranee-on-sluzhil-v-fsb-vyyasnila-arktida.)

            In his speech, Barinov said that Russia “has its own historical experience in recognizing and ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples. This approach has made it possible to preserve their population numbers, as well as their traditional settlement patterns, livelihood systems, and self-governance structures, over the centuries."

            One hardly knows where to start to address just how false Barinov’s claims are, notions that have been documented as untrue by activists and academic specialists in Russia itself and recognized as untrue by those in the international community who have paid close attention to Russia’s efforts to undermine and even destroy ethnic minorities.

            Attempting to dismiss their criticism as political and demanding that they adopt a non-political approach, a demand that seems little more than one which calls on everyone to accept everything he and other FSB officers say, is yet another example of the regime headed by another FSB officer trying to deny the obvious by throwing a shroud over unpleasant realities.

            The best response to this bombastic and outrageous approach is for all those taking part in the UN mechanism on minorities to step up their demands that the peoples themselves and their representatives be allowed to speak for themselves rather than their places being usurped as now by security personnel whose commitment to the truth is anything but strong.

            And in addition to that, the international community as a whole needs to focus more attention on just what the Putin regime is doing when it comes to ethnic minorities and the ways in which it is trying to hide its horrendous record in that regard. Anything less will allow the Kremlin and the FSB to proceed with what they have been doing.