Is dissatisfaction growing among the national minorities in Russia? The organization “Asians of Russia” calls for an end to the war and criticizes the “catastrophic statistics” of dead soldiers. Apparently, members of national minorities are also clearly disadvantaged when it comes to compensation.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the dissatisfaction of ethnic minorities in Russia with the war in Ukraine is apparently increasing. The US think tank relies on statements by Vasily Matenov, the founder of the organization “Asians of Russia”.
According to his own statements, he founded the association to support “endangered and numerically small peoples who are discriminated against by the Russian state”. “At the moment the priority is to end the war, into which all peoples without exception were drawn! The statistics of civilian fatalities in Ukraine are frightening, as is the catastrophic statistics of dead soldiers who come from national minorities!” Officially, the war in Ukraine can only be described as a “military special operation” in Russia.
The “Asians of Russia” also demand “that our people be informed not only about the Kremlin’s propaganda, but also about other sources! So that people strive for democracy and not for dictatorship.” In addition, lawyers are needed, after all, given the missing and those who do not want to fight, there is “a lot of work”.
According to the ISW, which relies on Ukrainian sources, the Russian authorities are said to discriminate against the families of ethnic minority soldiers in cases of death. For example, Russia pays families of deceased soldiers from Moscow three times as much as families of soldiers from the minority-dominated Buryatia region.
The US think tank had previously reported on ethnic minority protest groups. According to the ISW, they will probably continue to protest against the fact that the Kremlin draws its fighting strength primarily from fringe groups in Russian society.
As early as April, the BBC reported that numerous soldiers fighting in Ukraine come from eastern Russia. The British broadcaster had evaluated publicly available data from more than 1,000 soldiers who had fallen on the Russian side in the war. After that, many came from Buryatia, in the deep east of Russia – more than 6,000 kilometers from Kyiv.
