Description
The Russian invasion of Ukraine marked a turning point in the country’s foreign policy towards its neighbour but also heralded a domestic war on those who opposed its actions. The war thus occasioned a new temporality for anti-war Russians, where a more authoritarian and repressive Russia came into being. The temporality of the invasion of Ukraine thus provoked moral dilemmas and discussions about who and what it means to be Russian today. For ethnic Russians from the regions who migrated from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, the war thus occasioned transnational counter-hegemonic and decolonial identities and movements to oppose Russian imperialism whilst simultaneously resisting colonial practices and structures at home. Ethnic activists abroad have supported activists inside the country, informed the regions about the realities of Putin’s war and helped ethnic Russian men, who have been disproportionately drafted for war, to escape mobilisation. Through transnational decolonial practices and acts, these communities resist Russia’s imperial and authoritarian nationalism by inspiring ethnic identifications, pride in ethnic languages and culture and political autonomy. In other words, the anti-war transnationalism of Russia’s ethnic communities seeks to dismantle the legacies of empire past and present while asserting new political futures for Russia’s ethnic regions. The paper thus sheds light on transnational decolonial movements by native populations abroad, an under researched area in diaspora and post-colonial studies.
