Overview
- Speaking at a Kremlin session on nationalities policy, Vladimir Putin called references to a 'decolonization' or 'Post-Russia' scenario an information-war effort to dismantle the federation.
- He described the idea as rooted in 'aggressive Russophobia' and asserted that Russia cannot exist without the ethnic Russian population.
- Putin said adversaries have failed to incite ethnic unrest and instructed authorities to respond quickly to any cases of interethnic conflict.
- To underscore a multiethnic identity, the Kremlin introduced two state holidays: the Day of Small Indigenous Peoples of Russia and the Day of the Languages of the Russian Federation.
- Political scientists cited in coverage note no current separatist movements since Chechnya’s rebellion was crushed, though they caution fragmentation could become plausible in the event of a military defeat in Ukraine or a sudden fall of Putin.