November 14, 2022
European Parliament President
Roberta Metsola
Dear Madam President!
We take this opportunity to assure you of our highest consideration.
The Free Nations League, uniting Tatars, Bashkirs, Buryats, Yakuts, Kalmyks, Chechens, Erzyans, Mokshans, Cossacks and Ingrians in their fight for the right to self-determination, is addressing you.
Today we are deprived thereof, because our republics and regions were transformed into colonies of centralized empire. Our peoples are not allowed to study in their native language. Our national organizations and parties are banned and dissolved. Our politicians are imprisoned, killed, maimed or forced to emigrate. Moscow is plundering the republics, rapaciously exploiting their rich subsoil, leaving ruins and ecological disaster zones. Our peoples became subjects to covert genocide, since Moscow is mobilizing a disproportionate number of representatives of the autochthonous population to continue the barbaric war in Ukraine.
However, even in these conditions, our peoples demonstrate their subjectness not only by means of political statements, but also by means of direct actions, preventing mobilization for another aggressive colonial war waged by Russia upon Ukraine.
Despite the fact that ethnic non-Russians make up a significant part of the population of the Russian Federation, and the national republics occupy the vast territory of a pseudo-federation, our voice is ignored and systematically muffled.
Moreover, we notice that the Russian opposition politicians in exile speak publicly on behalf of all the territories and all the peoples of the Russian Federation, for which they do not have a legitimate mandate.
With this in mind, we, the members of the Free Nations League, declare:
Any negotiations regarding the territories that are now under the rule of Moscow must take place with our participation – Tatars, Bashkirs, Buryats, Yakuts, Kalmyks, Chechens, Erzyans, Mokshans, Cossacks, as well as representatives of other peoples and regionalist movements.
Russian opposition politicians in exile can represent themselves, but none of the national movements, not a single national representative body has given them a mandate to represent our interests.
A dialogue “about Russia” with representatives of the Moscow elites or counter-elites, behind the back of the peoples of the North Caucasus, Idel-Ural, Siberia, as well as other Moscow colonies, will irreversibly lead to a tension and radicalization of the situation. Non-Russian ethnicities will receive a clear signal from European politicians: ‘They talk to Muscovites about our lands and our wealth, they talk behind our back’.
We ask you not to oppose our peoples to ethnic Russians, moving us away from contacts with the European Parliament, and replacing dialogue with the peoples of the Russian Federation with a dialogue with several Moscow politicians. The Free Nations League does not recognize any "transitional governments" or other self-proclaimed structures of the Russian opposition.
We are counting on your balanced and wise position.
Sincerely, The appeal was signed by representatives of national movements:
Bashkir
Ruslan Gabbasov, head of the Bashkir National Political Center (BNPC)
Ilshat Kinzyabaev, member of the Bashkir National Political Center
Buryat
Dorzho Dugarov, representative of the Buryat democratic movement "Buryad-Mongol Erkheten" in the European Union
Radjana Dugar-DePonte, representative of the Buryat democratic movement "Buryad-Mongol Erkheten" in the USA
Cossack
Vyacheslav Demin, elder of the Cossack National Liberation Movement
Ingrian
Mike Ingram, Leader of Ingrian Renaissance Association.
Oirat-Kalmyk
Arslang Sandzhiev, Chairman of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People
Erentsen Dolyaev, Deputy Chairman of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People
Batyr Boromangnaev, Deputy Chairman of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People
Vladimir Dovdanov, Deputy Chairman of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People
Albert Sharapov, Member of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People
Daavr Dorzhin, Member of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People
Moksha
Chovhanon Donisi, Head of the Committee of the Moksha nation representatives (in exile)
Tatar
Rafis Kashapov, Vice Prime Minister of the government of independent Tatarstan in exile, one of the co-founders of the Free Idel-Ural movement
Farit Zakiyev, Chairman of the All-Tatar Public Center
Nafis Kashapov, Vice Prime Minister of the government of independent Tatarstan in exile
Irshat Khabi, a political emigrant
Chechen
Khamzat Grozny, political émigré in France from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Erzya
Bolyaen Syres, chief elder of the Erzya people
Vitaly Romashkin, member of the Council of Elders
Ozhomason Kirdya
Yakut
Raisa Zubareva, co-founder of the Free Yakutia Foundation