New Public Group Emerges in Russian Far East to Promote Democratization and Regional Identity

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 13 – A group of activists has formed the Far Eastern Territory public organization to promote democratization there along with a collective regional identity of a place often treated by others as a part of Siberia or simply a reserve of natural resources and people to serve Moscow and Russia west of the Urals.

            The group, announced by its organizers earlier this month, calls itself in letters to potential members “the Far Eastern Territory Interregional Public Organization for Promoting Interregional Communication, Cooperation and Civic Initiatives, according to one of its backers, Far Eastern political scientist Georgy Kulakov (region.expert/far-east-organization/).

            (On Kulakov’s own views about how recent developments in the Far East and in relations between Russia and China brought on by Putin’s war in Ukraine, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/07/russian-officials-openly-calling.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/07/moscows-colonial-approach-to-russian.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/06/strong-local-patriotism-may-become-even.html.)

            The new group is less than a political party – regional parties have long been illegal in the Russian Federation – but more than just a talk shop as it consists of people who oppose radical nationalism of all kinds and who support democracy, both needed, its organizers say, to prevent it from becoming “merely part of some ‘Parade of Sovereignties 2.0.’”

            How the group will develop remains to be seen, but even its announcement suggests that it may play an important role in deciding, in the words of Kulakov, whether the Far East will move “from being ‘not quite Russia’ to being ‘not Russia at all’” as the tectonic shifts sparked by Putin’s war in Ukraine and turn to the East play out.

            It certainly merits the closest possible attention.