Make Federalism ‘Sexy’ Again Now, Free Buryatia Activist Says

Paul Goble     

            Staunton, Aug. 10 – Russia can only make progress after the departure of Putin by becoming a genuine rather than a fraudulent federation, and that can only happen if those who understand that get to work now and make federalism “sexy” again, according to Aleksandra Garmazhapova.

            The founder of the Free Buryatia Foundation who has been in exile since 2022 says that she is convinced that Russia after Putin will “either become a real federation or it will reproduce the empire yet again” and that to have the chance for progress in the future, that is a primary task now (semnasem.org/articles/2026/08/10/make-federation-sexy).

            Despite its name, Russia is not a federation, Garmazhapova says. It was not formed on a voluntary basis, does not offer equal rights to all its components, does not give the federal subjects the power to set and collect taxes on their own, and decide on their own what they and their populations want.

            According to the activist, “regions should have the right to determine their priorities, social, cultural and linguistic. We have this on paper, of course, but in fact, everything is determined by Moscow” and the federal subjects have been reduced to being little more than the executors of the will of the center.

            Garmazhapova says she doesn’t understand either of the two most widely expressed objections to this: those who say the future requires the disintegration of the Russian state as a whole and those who insist that there cannot be any change in borders at all, with some leaving and others forming a new whole.

            The former fail to address the possibility that not everyone wants to leave and that there are disputes among the regions that must be addressed. And the latter fail to recognize that if some people want to pursue independence that is their fundamental right and it must be respected.

“Ideally,” she says, “we should talk about what can be done so that people do not want to leave the federation, because they would have a successful life. Make the federation sexy again” is the principle she wants to see realized rather than tearing the country apart or keeping it together by force alone.