OPINION: Not only Ukraine: How Russia Destroys Other Nations

Ukraine has been suffering from the war started by Russia 10 years ago. The million-plus-person city of Kharkiv is under Russian shelling every day. An attack on a hypermarket on May 25 claimed the lives of 19 civilians. The Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated the large city of Kherson, but the Russians continue to harass its residents with missile strikes. Bakhmut, Maryinka, Avdiivka and Severodonetsk —industrial cities in eastern Ukraine— no longer exist because Russia literally destroyed them. However, as a Ukrainian parliamentarian, I have to acknowledge that we are not the only ones who suffer from Russian imperialism.

Dozens of nations within the Russian Federation want to save their identities, but the Kremlin constantly obstructs it, violating human rights. The modern empire wants the people to have only one identity — Russian. The Russian Federation has enslaved entire ethnic groups to achieve it.

Russia is not only Russians

Approximately 20 percent of the current Russian population are not Russians. Tatars, Chechens, Bashkirs, Tuvans, Circassians, Chuvash, Kalmyks, Adyghe, Avars, and Mordvins inhabit Russia and undergo oppression. Millions of Russian citizens are of non-Russian origin, but efforts are made to impose a Russian identity on them.

Every nation has the right to develop its culture and language, expand its population and gain political independence, but propaganda and totalitarianism never let this happen. Geographically, 77 percent of the Russian Federation is part of Asia. This is a completely different identity from the Russian one. This is not the identity we might have read about in the works of Pushkin, Lermontov or Tolstoy.

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Russia kills the protest potential of small nations

Youth is usually the driving force of revolutionary processes. When young people are dissatisfied with political processes in their country, they are the first who go to the streets and organize protest actions. Youth have the fewest obligations but the strongest desire for change. For example, the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine in 2013 began with student protests. Ukrainian youth wanted to become a part of the European Union. So, when then-President Viktor Yanukovych changed the political course, students were the first to go to Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti). The beating of students in the center of Kyiv by police triggered the irreversible process of Ukrainian Eurointegration.

Similarly, in the Russian Federation, youth could become a driving force for changes, but Putin's regime opposes it. Enslaved nations also suffer now. The last vivid example is the large-scale protest that took place in Bashkortostan in January 2024. Local residents went to the streets of Baymak city in -20 degrees Celsius to support Faizil Alsinov, who was illegally imprisoned by a Russian court. Russian security forces forcibly dispersed the rally using batons and tear gas. This is one of the latest cases where Russians violated human rights against enslaved ethnic groups.

The Russian policy on mobilization is particularly interesting. The Kremlin mostly spares ethnic Russians and residents of large cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg), sending young representatives of enslaved peoples to the war against Ukraine. Many of them will never get back home. This policy is quite obvious because it reduces the protest potential in the regions. The fewer active young people among non-Russians, the more opportunities there are to dominate these ethnic groups. Thus, the Kremlin destroys any desire of small nations towards self-determination and violates their human rights.

Russia is a leader in human rights violations

Genocide is a terrible thing that Ukraine is experiencing now. Russia brings the killing of civilians, the destruction of entire cities, the rewriting of history, and the kidnapping of children. Bucha, Irpin, and Mariupol were previously unknown to the world, but now they are associated with great sorrow. Because, along with armed aggression, the Russian Federation has brought real genocide to the Ukrainian people.

But genocide can also happen to small nations within the Russian Federation. It will not be a quick process, but a slow assimilation of peoples. Kalmyks, Tuvans, Chechens and other peoples today are forced to learn the Russian language and be subjected to the Kremlin to survive. Russia takes away the identity of other ethnic groups and gives them a low standard of living, poor education, and propaganda on television instead.

I reckon that Western governments must recognize the problem of enslaved nations to prevent the deaths of many ethnic groups. Firstly, it is necessary to understand that the Russian Federation is not only Russian. Other nations within the Russian Federation suffer from the Kremlin’s policy every day.

The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.