Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 12 – The Free Russia Forum which has always opposed Putin’s imperial war against Ukraine has now taken the “logical” next step and increasingly opposes the continued existence of the Russian empire as such, according to the Tallinn-based regionalist portal Region.Expert.
That represents a remarkable evolution from meetings of the Forum before 2022 when regionalists and non-Russian nationalists were treated as “dissidents among dissidents,” the portal, which is edited by long-time regionalist Vadim Shtepa says (region.expert/frf-evolution/) and may point the way to an evolution in Russian opposition thinking more generally.
(For background on that pattern, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/11/russian-federalists-dissidents-among.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/11/regionalist-participants-in-free-russia.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/03/russian-liberals-committed-to.html.)
If so, that means that the longer Putin continues his war against Ukraine, the more Russian opposition figures and groups will recognize that the real problem is Russian imperialism more generally and the hyper-centralization of the Russian state rather than just who is in charge in the Kremlin.
Up to now, many Russian opposition groups have acted as if the only challenge was to replace “a bad tsar” with “a good” one, rather than change the nature of the Russian state so that tsars, however good they may begin do not turn into something bad over time. In that event, Putin’s war against Ukraine may backfire against him in yet another and profound war.
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