In fact, the Russian Federation was rarely referred to as an empire before the 2008 invasion of #Georgia: indeed, it itself had remained unsure of exactly what it was for much of the preceding period, with various versions of ‘Russia’ – multicultural federation, nation-state, and, indeed, #empire — competing against each other for much of that period. And, besides, many in the #West were too committed to the ‘liberal’ Boris Yeltsin, and too taken in by Vladimir Putin’s demonstrative enthusiasm for the Global War on #Terror to turn the brutal — and very imperial — wars in #Chechnya, and indirect ‘divide-and-rule’ meddling elsewhere into a point of principle.
#Russia’s post-2014 aggressions against #Ukraine have now unequivocally pushed the dial. Calls for its breakup, and the self-determination of its 83 internationally recognised federal subjects and over 190 ethnic groups have also become more vocal of late.

https://ridl.io/the-fraught-complexities-of-decolonising-russia/ #war #iran #history #decolonisation #migration #genocide