Russia’s Breaking Point: Putin Pushes Restive Regions to the Brink
The Kremlin is alive to the dangers of a surge in nationalism among the Federation’s ethnic groups | Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images
How long will people in Russia’s ethnic republics and far-flung territories remain quiet and subdued? Not for much longer suspects Russian-born political scientist Sergej Sumlenny, a former chief editor at Russian business broadcaster RBC-TV.
The republics have long chafed under Moscow’s imperial rule — so too territories in the far east and parts of remote northern Russia. The seeds of potential rebellion, especially in the North Caucasus, the Sakha Republic and the Middle Volga, are being sown, he thinks. Increasing economic distress and impoverishment, the exploitation of natural resources only for the benefit of Moscow, the failure to drive development and investment, a reckless attitude to pollution and environmental degradation, and governance swinging from repression to negligence are all stoking simmering grievance.
Read full article at: POLITICO