Chatting with France's Nationwide Meeting on April 11, Russian opposition chief Vladimir Kara-Murza didn’t petition Europe for the Kremlin's complete navy defeat.
But, whereas answering one of many many questions posed to him, he talked about how a colleague supposedly discovered that ethnic Russians discover it "psychologically tough" to kill Ukrainians as a result of they’re so "comparable."
"They are saying… we’re alike, these are very carefully associated peoples, as everybody is aware of: nearly the identical language, the identical faith, centuries and centuries of shared historical past… However for somebody from one other tradition, allegedly, it's simpler," Kara-Murza mentioned, recalling the phrases reportedly spoken to him by a colleague on the Parliamentary Meeting of the Council of Europe.
"I had by no means considered it this fashion earlier than. For me, the explanations (for Russia's ethnic minorities to battle in Ukraine) had been primarily financial, however after she informed me this yesterday, I started to consider it as properly," he added.
Kara-Murza's remarks triggered a wave of on-line criticism, not solely from Ukrainians but additionally from members of Russia's ethnic minority teams. He later claimed that his feedback had been intentionally taken out of context and insisted that they contained no "imperialistic sentiment."
The backlash stems from a debate that gained a better sense of urgency after the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine — the controversy over the motion to decolonize Russia.
Whereas some critics — each inside and out of doors the Kremlin's orbit — view it as a risk to the sovereignty of the Russian Federation, advocates argue it’s a crucial confrontation with Russia's centuries-long imperial legacy.
"Decolonization is, in the beginning, about eliminating imperial pondering," exiled Buryat activist and journalist Alexandra Garmazhapova informed the Kyiv Impartial.
"Many ignore the important thing level that racism and the remedy of ethnic minorities in Russia are straight linked to Russia's struggle towards Ukraine, which is predicated on the identical arguments."
Does the Russian opposition help decolonization?
The motion to decolonize Russia is topic to totally different interpretations, however based on historian Botakoz Kassymbekova, a specialist in Russian imperial historical past who teaches on the College of Basel, it primarily entails "parting with imperial buildings, identification, and varieties" of the Russian state.
"Nationwide self-determination (of Russia's ethnic minorities) will not be merely in regards to the potential to talk one's language, however about deciding about one's personal societies' political buildings and futures," she informed the Kyiv Impartial.
"It’s about changing into a nation and letting others train nationwide rights. I interpret it as a means of democratization."
The underlying elements driving the demand for decolonization stretch again by way of centuries of rigidity between Russia's ruling elite and the communities which have existed on the nation's periphery.
"It isn’t (simply) a discourse however a political apply," Alexander Etkind, a professor at Central European College, added.
"Traditionally, it has often been a results of a number of wars and revolutions."
Russia is dwelling to over 190 ethnic teams unfold throughout the nation. Nonetheless, many ethnic minorities have confronted systemic racism of their day by day lives, and the nation's republics — dwelling to sure minority teams and distinct from oblasts and krais — are autonomous in title solely.
On paper, these republics have their very own constitutions and official languages alongside Russian. Nonetheless, the Russian authorities has taken steps through the years to consolidate energy and diminish the autonomy of its republics, together with passing an modification to its schooling legal guidelines in 2018 to make the instructing of non-Russian languages voluntary slightly than obligatory.
In late 2022, the Republic of Tatarstan voted to alter its structure, banning the title "president" for its chief — a transparent signal that in Russia, there is just one president — Vladimir Putin. This transformation adopted a 2021 legislation that required all regional leaders to undertake the extra generic title of "head."
Although the title change could appear symbolic, it was simply one other instance that confirmed how far native authorities would go to placate Moscow.
Russia's federal structure additionally prohibits any republic from formally seceding, and traditionally, makes an attempt to take action have led to violence, such because the wars that erupted within the Chechen Republic within the Nineties.
From exile, the Russian opposition has appeared to largely sidestep the social and historic grievances fueling calls to decolonize Russia, usually conflating the decolonial motion with an existential risk to the integrity of the Russian Federation itself.
"Navalnaya confirmed the entire world (together with her remark) that she has no real curiosity in grappling with Russian colonialism and due to this fact no real curiosity in democracy, humanism, and justice."
On the Bled Strategic Discussion board in early September, opposition chief Yulia Navalnaya mentioned that those that name for the decolonization of Russia "can't clarify why individuals with shared backgrounds and tradition must be artificially divided. Nor do they are saying how this course of ought to even happen."
"Navalnaya confirmed the entire world (together with her remark) that she has no real curiosity in grappling with Russian colonialism and due to this fact no real curiosity in democracy, humanism, and justice," Kassymbekova mentioned.
The outright rejection of the concept "proved that Russian colonialism will not be merely about Putinism, however a extra normal a part of the political creativeness and ambition of the metropolitan political groupings, liberal or intolerant."
In a December 2024 interview with the American information outlet Vox, Kara-Murza dismissed the decolonization motion as "an incredible reward to Putin's propaganda," arguing that it permits the Kremlin to strengthen the narrative that the West basically "hates Russia," thereby rallying home help for its insurance policies.
"Frankly, it’s actually damaging, actually shortsighted, and actually counterproductive to listen to," he mentioned.
Opposition chief Ilya Yashin, launched along with Kara-Murza in early August following a U.S.-brokered prisoner alternate, acknowledged at an occasion in Warsaw on Oct. 7 that any new Russian federal treaty ought to embody the best to secession.
Nonetheless, Yashin later clarified that his stance was grounded in precept slightly than a perceived necessity.
"We want a brand new federal structure, one written from scratch, that features these mechanisms. I don't see any indicators of this occurring (because of such an inclusion), although. I don't consider Tatarstan or some other republic really needs to secede. However these mechanisms have to be clearly spelled out. In each federation — Canada, Germany, and others — the best of areas to depart the federation is clearly outlined," Yashin mentioned.
On the identical assembly, nevertheless, Yashin mentioned that Moscow "should share powers" with the republics and that there’s "nothing improper" with republics selecting their regional chief or instructing their languages in faculties.
"Not like Putin, I’m not afraid of this," he mentioned.
Dismissing the prospect of independence amongst Russia’s republics dangers erasing the struggles of native activists — lots of whom have additionally confronted repression underneath the Kremlin — and rendering their political company invisible, Kassymbekova cautioned.
But when Yashin and different Russian opposition leaders start to interact extra overtly with dissidents from Russia’s republics — organizing alongside them and serving to to raise their causes, "then will we see indicators of reorientation," she mentioned.
The Kyiv Impartial reached out to Yashin for remark, however as of the time of publication, he has not responded.
Are Russia's ethnic minority teams pushing for decolonization?
For members of Russia's minority teams, the trail to dissent begins with a rising recognition of how Moscow had systematically impoverished their republics, eroded basic freedoms, and pursued insurance policies to erase their cultural identities.
For Garmazhapova, her sense of identification was formed by her grandfather, who at all times spoke to her in Buryat. The discrimination he confronted for doing so in public opened her eyes to how deeply Russification had permeated life in Buryatia, trying to erase the native identification.
"As soon as, on the medical clinic, he requested in Buryat who was final within the ready line. A girl replied: 'Why are you chatting in your village language? Converse Russian!' And it nonetheless makes me indignant once I take into consideration how he should have felt at that second," she mentioned.
Situated in Russia's Far East, Buryatia is among the nation's most impoverished republics. With a inhabitants of just below a million, based on the nation's 2021 census, it has turn into completely politically and economically reliant on Moscow — and a supply, together with different republics, of recruitment for Russia's struggle in Ukraine.
The Free Buryatia Basis, co-founded by Garmazhapova within the wake of Russia's full-scale struggle towards Ukraine in 2022, is devoted to creating Buryatia "free and affluent" by way of a dedication to "the values of freedom and democracy."
The muse helps Buryats who don’t wish to participate within the struggle with authorized help and assist those that fled Russia because of the struggle.
For that, the Russian authorities has branded the Free Buryatia Basis — in addition to its founders — a "overseas agent" and an "extremist" group.
After giving an anti-war interview to a Ukrainian information channel, Garmazhapova was additionally positioned on a global needed listing by Russian authorities and sentenced in absentia to seven years in jail.
All this generally makes it tough to hold on with their work generally, based on Garmazhapova. Nonetheless, the notoriety introduced on by the Kremlin has additionally raised the inspiration's profile inside Buryatia.
The necessity to promote democratic initiatives in Buryatia has grown extra pressing because the onset of the full-scale invasion, as Moscow more and more exploits Russia's poorest areas with monetary incentives to maintain its struggle effort in Ukraine. Centuries of Russification have additionally left the native inhabitants in these ethnic republics extra weak to state propaganda and manipulation.
"Not solely the language but additionally the consciousness (of individuals in Buryatia) has been Russified. Many Buryats understand themselves as a part of Nice Russia. From a psychological standpoint, it's comprehensible — it’s extra nice to be a part of one thing massive and robust," she mentioned.
Underneath each the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, Buryats fought again to protect their cultural identification from Russia's imperial machine over the a long time, solely to be met with fierce repression.
Buryats had been among the many victims of the Stalinist purges within the Soviet Union within the Nineteen Thirties. The intelligentsia had been rounded up, and those that weren't instantly killed had been despatched to work camps.
Amongst these shot had been a few of Garmazhapova's circle of relatives.
The Soviet authorities additionally modified the script of the Buryat language, first to Latin after which to Cyrillic. A somber joke amongst previous individuals again then was that they "grew to become illiterate 3 times over," based on Garmazhapova.
Non secular figures have additionally been totally co-opted by the Russian regime, with Damba Ayusheyev, the chief of Russian Buddhists, claiming that Buddhists are combating for the "Russian world" with a view to protect their Mongolian heritage.
Nonetheless, the Kremlin's makes an attempt to coerce Buryats and different ethnic teams into believing they share equal standing with ethnic Russians fail to align with the realities of day by day life in modern-day Russia.
Valentina Matviyenko, Chairperson of the Federation Council, mentioned in March 2025 that universities in Russia's capital cities ought to cut back admissions of scholars from the areas, arguing that the nation should "shift (their) focus to regional universities: born there, wanted there."
For proponents of decolonization, the trail to overcoming Russia's entrenched institutional inequities lies in fostering grassroots initiatives to strengthen their republics and scale back the Kremlin's grip on them.
"It is very important construct establishments and a system of checks and balances within the areas," Garmazhapova mentioned. "Merely having autonomy — partial or full — doesn’t assure the institution of a democracy."
For Garmazhapova, the best-case state of affairs could be that if Russia's republics advocated for federalization by way of a referendum, it might be carried out underneath the watch of worldwide observers.
"The way forward for Buryatia must be decided by the residents of Buryatia themselves," she added.
"However there should even be a frontrunner who will take accountability for the way forward for the brand new Buryatia. I don't see any such leaders but."
Why does decolonization discourse matter?
Whereas the Russian opposition in exile downplays decolonization, dangerous discourse in regards to the nation's republics persists.
In an interview with a Jesuit publication in late 2022, Pope Francis attributed the worst Russian struggle crimes dedicated in Ukraine to non-ethnic Russians.
"Usually, the cruelest are maybe those that are of Russia however will not be of the Russian custom, such because the Chechens, the Buryats, and so forth," he mentioned.
The Bucha bloodbath carried out in the course of the early phases of Russia's full-scale invasion whereas Kyiv Oblast was underneath occupation, has been extensively linked to Buryat troopers — though investigations counsel that solely a few of the Russian troopers in Bucha had been Buryats, others, together with the management had been ethnically Russian.
Nonetheless, Russia's ethnic minorities discover themselves "the face" of Russia's struggle machine, though some — just like the Chechens of the Dzhokar Dudayev Battalion — are combating on the facet of Ukraine to defeat Russia.
Some argue that the Russian opposition has energy within the West to affect how the world sees its nation, together with its ethnic minorities.
"Russian political prisoners — no matter their precise views — purchase not simply sympathy and solidarity (which is pure), but additionally prophetic-like qualities (within the eyes of others) just by surviving hell," exiled Russian artist and author Katia Margolis wrote on April 13 on Fb following the controversy surrounding Kara-Murza's feedback.
"Their opinions carry particular weight, even after they sprout imperialism, chauvinism, the parable of 'good Russians,' or issues utterly at odds with historic truth and present actuality."
There was "naive hope" that the Russian opposition would discover methods to work extra carefully with activists from Russia's minority teams and interact with decolonization discourse, based on Kassymbekova.
"Nonetheless, their imperial reactions towards the colonized counsel they may try and retain Russia's imperial standing and privileges and proceed to disregard the colonized," she mentioned.
One more reason for the Russian opposition's obvious unwillingness to interact with the decolonization motion might be resulting from "lack of political creativeness," based on Etkind.
"All these individuals are Muscovites," he mentioned. "What would Moscow do with out Siberia? All of them nonetheless need one thing like greatness."
"Russia might be decolonized together with all different empires. We must always all facilitate this course of by varied means."
Be aware from the creator:
Hello there, it's Kate Tsurkan, thanks for studying my newest article. Decolonization is an extended and painful course of, no matter which empire we're speaking about, so I perceive that there’s a heated debate on the subject. But, I hope this text helps you perceive somewhat higher a few of what individuals from Russia's republics and those that actively help them really feel about it — their opinion on this matter is what issues essentially the most. It you want studying about this form of factor, please consider supporting The Kyiv Independent.
The Kyiv IndependentKate Tsurkan