Russians should disavow themselves of the indigenous peoples elimination policy

In words that echo Eugene Lyons’ 1953 classic, Our Secret Allies: The Peoples of Russia, Hanna Hopko, chair of the Verkhovna Rada’s foreign affairs committee, says that the non-Russian nations within the borders of the Russian Federation are more important allies of the Free World than are the members of the Russian opposition.

On April 13, 2019 Free Idel-Ural civic movement picketed diplomatic missions of Russian Federation in USA and Ukraine. Activists demanded from Russian authorities to stop pursuit of Airat Dilmukhametov, Bashkir politician, arrested on March 15, for a videoaddress to opposition Forum of free Russia, where Dilmukhametov called to “reconstitute Russian Federation again”.

When Stalin deported the Crimean Tatars in 1944, he loaded all of them on trains in the course of a few days and sent them to Central Asia, an action that is almost universally recognized and denounced as an act of genocide. But today, Vladimir Putin is doing much the same thing but in slow motion and getting away with it.

Early today, March 14, Airat Dilmuhametov’s apartment was searched, Bashkir activist and dissident himself was detained.

Seven persons in masks appeared to be FSB operatives in Bashkortostan, as NewsBash reports.

A group of five activists held a demonstration yesterday at the Russian consulate general in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv to demand the return of Crimea to Ukraine, freedom for Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia, and the right of self-determination for the captive nations within the current borders of the Russian Federation.