{"id":78941,"date":"2026-06-09T14:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/?p=78941"},"modified":"2026-06-23T11:30:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:30:52","slug":"russlands-ethnische-minderheiten-zwischen-unterdrueckung-und-dekolonisierung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/en\/russlands-ethnische-minderheiten-zwischen-unterdrueckung-und-dekolonisierung\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia\u2019s Ethnic Minorities: Between Repression and Decolonization"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On paper, Russia is a multi\u00adethnic state whose national minorities enjoy consti\u00adtu\u00adtional protection. In reality, however, the rights of non-Russian peoples have been drasti\u00adcally curtailed for years. Since 2024, anyone in Russia who advocates for ethnic and Indigenous groups is faced with the threat of prose\u00adcution under the country\u2019s draconian extremism laws. Yelizaveta Landen\u00adberger<\/em> analyses the situation.<\/h3>\n

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The Russian-language distinction between rossiisky<\/em> (referring to Russian citizens) and russky<\/em> (referring to ethnic Russians) is uncommon in most other languages. Yet it is useful: many inhab\u00adi\u00adtants of Russia are not ethnic Russians. According to the most recent census, 71 percent identify as Russian; by that measure, an estimated one in four or five inhab\u00adi\u00adtants belongs to an Indigenous people or an ethnic minority. In official termi\u00adnology, this form of ethnic identi\u00adfi\u00adcation is classified as nation\u00adality<\/em>. The Russian Consti\u00adtution right at its beginning \u2013 in the preamble \u2013 speaks of the \u201cmulti\u00adna\u00adtional people of the Russian Feder\u00adation\u201d as \u201cthe sole source of power.\u201d The larger people, such as Tatars, Bashkirs and Yakuts, are referred to as ethnic minorities. By contrast, \u201cIndigenous small-numbered peoples\u201d are defined as ethnic commu\u00adnities with fewer than 50,000 members who live in their ancestral homelands. Russia\u2019s \u201cindigenous\u201d population thus numbers about 315,000, of whom the Siberian Nenets are the largest group.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s colonial history<\/h2>\n

Russia\u2018s multi\u00adethnic makeup has historical roots. Beginning in the sixteenth century, Moscow embarked on a colonial expansion southward and eastward, which eventually reached all the way to the Pacific and, for a time, even included Alaska. It incor\u00adpo\u00adrated into the Tsarist Empire terri\u00adtories inhabited by other peoples. These peoples were violently conquered, russified, and partially chris\u00adtianized. These conquests are the reason why the Russian Feder\u00adation is today the world\u2019s largest country by territory. Russia has never reckoned with its colonial legacy, which also remains poorly under\u00adstood inter\u00adna\u00adtionally. In the course of the Soviet Union\u2019s collapse, some of the colonized regions began striving for self-determination.<\/p>\n

In 1991, Chechnya declared indepen\u00addence as the \u201cChechen Republic of Ichkeria.\u201d Other regions issued decla\u00adra\u00adtions of sover\u00adeignty in pursuit of greater autonomy within the Russian Feder\u00adation, including Tatarstan, Yakutia\/\u200bSakha, and Bashko\u00adr\u00adtostan. Russia\u2019s ethnic minorities demanded greater cultural and political indepen\u00addence, as well as control over their own resources. Yakutia, for example, possesses not only oil, natural gas and coal, but also minerals, diamonds and metals. Chechnya was forcibly reinte\u00adgrated into the Russian Feder\u00adation after two brutal wars, while the other regions lost most of the autonomy rights gained during the 1990s after Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999.<\/p>\n

Margin\u00adal\u00adization is an everyday reality<\/h2>\n

Within the Russian Feder\u00adation, there is a sharp economic divide between the cities in the country\u2019s west \u2013 above all Moscow and St. Petersburg \u2013 and the regions, many of which are inhabited by Indigenous peoples and minorities. Poverty rates there are high, infra\u00adstructure is poorly developed and often dilap\u00adi\u00addated. Amid the war in Ukraine, precarious living condi\u00adtions have induced a dispro\u00adpor\u00adtion\u00adately high rate of members of ethnic minorities and Indigenous peoples to enlist in the Russian army, while others were forcibly mobilized.<\/p>\n

According to an inves\u00adti\u00adgation by the local outlet Lyudi Baikala<\/em>, residents of the Republic of Buryatia in Russia\u2019s far east, where the Buryat minority makes up a signif\u00adicant share of the population, face a risk of dying in the war in Ukraine roughly thirty times higher than residents of Moscow. An ongoing project<\/a> by the independent Russian outlet Mediazona<\/em>, based on death notices, has also found a big contrast between center and periphery: the largest number of the currently 225,019 confirmed deaths come from Bashko\u00adr\u00adtostan, followed by Tatarstan.<\/p>\n

Discrim\u00adi\u00adnation also exists at the level of general racism toward immigrants, as well as toward minorities. Despite the fact that the Russian consti\u00adtution is supposed to guarantee the protection of ethnic and cultural diversity, discrim\u00adi\u00adnation remains deeply rooted in society. For example, housing adver\u00adtise\u00adments commonly state that apart\u00adments are for rent \u201conly to Slavs.\u201d \u201cNon-Russian\u201d has become an insult \u2014 though decolonial activists in exile have in turn reclaimed it as an empow\u00adering term of self-description. According to reporting<\/a> by the U.S.-funded broad\u00adcaster Current Time TV, hostility toward migrants, Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities has even increased since the start of the full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n

Ruthless repression and a decolonial fa\u00e7ade<\/h2>\n

Since 2022, Russia\u2019s Indigenous peoples have been subjected to increas\u00adingly ruthless repression. In June 2024, the country\u2019s Supreme Court declared a nonex\u00adistent \u201canti-Russian separatist movement\u201d to be an extremist organi\u00adzation. This legal maneuver, which was also used against the LGBT movement, allows the Russian judiciary to deploy the country\u2019s draconian extremism laws against virtually anyone who advocates for the rights of ethnic minorities and Indigenous peoples. Conse\u00adquen\u00adtally, the \u201cFree Nations Forum\u201d in December 2024 was added to Russia\u2019s register of terrorist organi\u00adza\u00adtions with alleged 172 struc\u00adtural subdi\u00advi\u00adsions. However, some of those subdi\u00advi\u00adsions do not exist, and those that do are not organi\u00adza\u00adtionally connected.<\/p>\n

In December, police searched the homes of at least 17 activists. Among them was Darya Egereva, a member of the Siberian Selkup people estimated to number only around 3,500. Egereva (also spelt Yegeryeva) was arrested along with fellow rights defender Natalia Leongardt. Both women are currently in pre-trial detention<\/a> and face up to 20 years in prison over alleged involvement in a terrorist organi\u00adzation. Prose\u00adcutors link their involvement in the \u201cAborigen Forum\u201d \u2013 an informal associ\u00adation of activists and experts on Indigenous peoples \u2013 to the \u201cFree Nations Forum,\u201d asserting that the former functions as a subdi\u00advision of the latter. This claim is false and consti\u00adtutes a fabri\u00adcated allegation. The next court hearing is scheduled for 11 June.<\/p>\n

Paradox\u00adi\u00adcally, in November 2025, Putin intro\u00adduced the \u201cDay of the Languages of the Russian Feder\u00adation\u201d and the \u201cDay of the Indigenous Minorities of the Russian Feder\u00adation\u201d as remem\u00adbrance days. The latter is intended to preserve \u201cthe tradi\u00adtional way of life, economic activity, crafts, and distinct culture\u201d of these peoples. While the Russian leadership suppresses political activists \u2013 presumably also because it fears indepen\u00addence movements like those of the 1990s \u2013 it is simul\u00adta\u00adne\u00adously constructing a decolonial fa\u00e7ade intended, among other things, to impress the Global South.<\/p>\n

The war, and the resulting ideological emphasis on the \u201cunity of the peoples of Russia\u201d \u2013 Putin even placed the current year under this motto \u2013 ensure that neither dissent nor genuine pluralism are tolerated. Polit\u00adi\u00adcally active members of ethnic minorities and Indigenous peoples who, for example, demand environ\u00admental and cultural protection, are portrayed as disruptive elements threat\u00adening the cohesion of a society at war. The small minority of more radical decolonial activists, who openly call for breaking up Russia into independent states, serve the Kremlin as a pretext to place everyone under blanket suspicion.<\/p>\n

Decol\u00ado\u00adnization on the new PACE platform\u2019s agenda<\/h2>\n

While repression in Russia continues to intensify, more hopeful devel\u00adop\u00adments are taking place in exile. On October 1, 2025, the Parlia\u00admentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), adopted a resolution creating a \u201cplatform for dialogue with Russian democ\u00adratic forces.\u201d The platform for the first time provides democ\u00adra\u00adt\u00adi\u00adcally-minded Russians an insti\u00adtution on the European level that gives them a voice. (Russia was a member of PACE between 1996 and 2022, but was expelled from the Council of Europe after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.) The resolution states that partic\u00adi\u00adpants should be well-known figures from exile of \u201cthe highest moral standing\u201d who rotate annually. Since they lack legit\u00adimacy through free elections, they do not have voting rights on PACE resolu\u00adtions. They can, however, partic\u00adipate in working groups and serve in an advisory capacity.<\/p>\n

On January 29, the platform\u2019s first meeting took place behind closed doors in Stras\u00adbourg. What is noteworthy and especially contro\u00adversial within the Russian opposition is its strong focus on ethnic minorities and Indigenous peoples. The PACE resolution<\/a> empha\u00adsizes that the \u201cquestion of the rights of the Indigenous peoples and national minorities of the Russian Feder\u00adation,\u201d as well as the preparedness to engage in meaningful dialogue with their repre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtives, plays a critical role in shaping a democ\u00adratic political system: \u201cThe issue of overcoming the colonial legacy of the Russian Feder\u00adation would have to be addressed, including the concerns and interests of Indigenous and colonised peoples residing in the terri\u00adtories of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accord\u00adingly, the resolution reserves one third of the platform\u2019s seats for repre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtives of Indigenous peoples and minorities. This compar\u00ada\u00adtively high quota is largely attrib\u00adutable to the initiative of the Ukrainian PACE delegation, which was rather skeptical of the creation of the Russian platform and wanted to establish a counter\u00adweight to prominent Russian opposition figures. Members include Ekaterina Kuznetsova, an artist and chair of the House of Ingria in Narva, Estonia; Pavel Sulyandziga, an activist from the Udege people of eastern Siberia and founder of the Batani Foundation for the protection of small Indigenous peoples; Lana Pylaeva, head of the independent media portal Komi Daily<\/em>; and Vasily \u201cBatlai\u201d Matenov, a member of the editorial board of Asians of Russia<\/em> and a Buryat decolonial activist.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen how influ\u00adential the platform will ultimately prove, and whether it can foster a broader and more sustained awareness of Russia\u2019s colonial legacy and its ongoing patterns of discrim\u00adi\u00adnation against Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities.<\/p>\n

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Yeli\u00adza\u00adveta (Eli\u00adsa\u00adbeth) Lan\u00adden\u00adber\u00adger is a freelance jour\u00adna\u00adlis\u00adt and a researcher at the Slavic Studies Department of Berlin\u2019s Humboldt-Universit\u00e4t.<\/em><\/p>\n

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