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Decolonizing Russia: a Moral and Strategic Imperative

Member

Representative Steve Cohen

Co-Chairman

Commission on Security & Cooperation in Europe

Witnesses

Fatima Tlis

Circassian Journalist

Botakoz Kassymbekova

Lecturer

University of Basel

Erica Mar

Associate Professor

College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University

Hanna Hopko

Chair, Democracy in Action Conference

Former Member of the Ukrainian Parliament

Casey Michel

Author

“American Kleptocracy”

Russia’s barbaric war on Ukraine—and before that on Syria, Libya, Georgia, and Chechnya—has exposed the Russian Federation’s viciously imperial character to the entire world. Its aggression also is catalyzing a long-overdue conversation about Russia’s interior empire, given Moscow’s dominion over many indigenous non-Russian nations, and the brutal extent to which the Kremlin has taken to suppress their national self-expression and self-determination.

Serious and controversial discussions are now underway about reckoning with Russia’s fundamental imperialism and the need to “decolonize” Russia for it to become a viable stakeholder in European security and stability. As the successor to the Soviet Union, which cloaked its colonial agenda in anti-imperial and anti-capitalist nomenclature, Russia has yet to attract appropriate scrutiny for its consistent and oftentimes brutal imperial tendencies.

The following panelists are scheduled to participate:

  • Fatima Tlis, Circassian journalist
  • Botakoz Kassymbekova, Lecturer, University of Basel
  • Erica Marat, Associate Professor, College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University
  • Hanna Hopko, Chair, Democracy in Action Conference; former Member of the Ukrainian Parliament
  • Casey Michel, Author, American Kleptocracy
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