The Kavkaz.Realii outlet offered their reflection on the past year and expectations for the current one.
Aleksandr Belikov
In December, the fourteenth “Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum” was held in Vienna. It was attended by European politicians and representatives of North Caucasian movements advocating for separation from the Russian Federation. National liberation initiatives in 2024 faced active measures from the Russian state: the Supreme Court declared the forum “terrorist,” and the Ministry of Justice had previously banned the non-existent “anti-Russian separatist movement.”
Under the supervision of secret services
In July, 55 anti-colonialist initiatives were banned for “undermining the multinational unity and territorial integrity of Russia.” Among them were five Nogai national movements, four Circassian, three Chechen, three Don and Kuban Cossack groups, two Dagestani and one Ingush organization, as well as two pan-Caucasian initiatives – the Caucasus Union and the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples.
The public activity of national movements directed inward attracts the attention of Russian security forces. In April, representatives of several Circassian diaspora organizations abroad issued an appeal to support Ukraine, calling on Circassians living in Russia not to participate in the war. The head of the Circassian Congress, Kase Kik, who signed the appeal, announced a few months later that security forces had conducted a search at his parents’ home and confiscated their phones.
“Pressure on relatives and friends continues. However, it has not affected our activities—on the contrary, we have doubled our efforts. The purpose of any such illegal pressure on the relatives of politicians and activists is blackmail—to make them stop their activities. We will not react and we will not succumb to blackmail,” explains Kik.
We take inclusion in the Ministry of Justice register as a high evaluation of our work.
Russian security forces initially ignored the organization’s work, but now they have begun to actively oppose it, says the chairman of the Ingush Independence Committee (KIN), Ansar Garko. The committee was created in January 2023 at a congress of supporters of independent Ingushetia in Istanbul. Last year, the organization was declared “undesirable.” The committee and its head appeared on the list of “foreign agents” and then on the Rosfinmonitoring list of terrorists and extremists. At the same time, a smear campaign against the association began through a network of agents abroad, our source claims.
At the end of June, activist Akhmad Ozdo, after reading the committee’s statutory statement, accused Garko of collaborating with Europe and Ukraine, which support Israel in the war in the Gaza Strip. In response, KIN representatives stated that Ozdo is collaborating with the security forces.
“Since the founding of KIN in Turkey, people have appeared who were extremely negative toward our activities. They considered our work premature, and then, not ‘radical’ enough. Akhmad Ozdo repeatedly warned us that these people were pushing him to speak out against the committee. Over time, we learned the names of those who forced him to do so; some of them collaborated on the text of the statement. Several of them later safely returned to Ingushetia, even though they had previously claimed they were being persecuted by Russian special services,” says Garko.
The authorities began to realize that KIN has real influence, and instead of completely ignoring or criticizing it, they moved to attempts to paralyze the activities of individual committee members and increase repression against their relatives, the source continues. Garko says he has information about offers of monetary rewards for his physical liquidation as the head of the committee.
The head of the Supreme Council of the Nogai People, banned by the Ministry of Justice, and representative of the Nogai El organization, Anvar Kurmanakayev, told the editorial office that there are currently about 300 members in five Nogai organizations. According to him, state persecution has made many people realize how weak they are as individuals, which has led to a unification of efforts of various political groups.
The Dagestan National Center was also included in the list of banned organizations. It was created by people from the Republic of Dagestan in Kyiv after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. A representative of the organization noted that the new status has practically no impact on its activities.
“We took the inclusion in the Ministry of Justice register as a high evaluation of our work. For us, it was neither an improvement nor a deterioration—we were prepared. The FSB security forces had been paying attention to us before. I cannot disclose all the information known to me, as I would expose members and supporters of our organization to repression and intimidation,” our source noted.
United by contradictions
The topic of unifying disparate North Caucasian initiatives on a single platform arose in the first year of the invasion. After the Ukrainian parliament recognized the genocide of the Chechen people, the first meeting of the Caucasus Union movement was held in Kyiv in October 2022. It included two Chechen initiatives: United Forces led by Djambulat Suleymanov and the World Chechen Congress of Deni Teps. Another participant was the Dagestan National Center.
Members of the Caucasus Union communicate and cooperate with all initiatives of the peoples of the North Caucasus. They also maintain contacts with groups advocating for the liberation of Turkic and Finno-Ugric peoples and Ukrainian civil movements.
Last spring, after the March conference of the Caucasus Union in Warsaw, it was announced that 26 organizations would merge into a COALITION. Among them are Circassian and Nogai movements, but the majority of participants are representatives of regions outside the North Caucasus. The coalition includes such initiatives as the Chuvash-Volga-Bulgarian Diplomatic Council, Free Pomorie, the National Liberation Movement of the Udmurt Republic, and the civil organization Strong Azerbaijan.
“We joined the Caucasus Union as legal entities. It is a registered international organization. Perhaps there are not enough representatives of one or two nations, but overall we have managed to unite dozens of national movements. We are in favor of further unification—it will be useful for our nations,” emphasizes the head of the Supreme Council of the Nogai People, Kurmanakayev.
No nation can accept such disregard
The nations of the North and South Caucasus have united within the Caucasus Union. “We definitely have a consensus. Various movements use a single platform for coordination and cooperation,” says Kik, head of the Circassian Congress, which joined the union in 2023. “Without it, it would not be possible to unite the efforts of our movements; disputes occur, but they are tactical in nature. From a strategic point of view, we are united.”
The Caucasus Union has a combat wing, the core of which consists of Georgian volunteers from the Caucasus Legion and the Sheikh Mansur Battalion from Ichkeria. Another major Chechen initiative—the Government of the Republic of Ichkeria in Exile under the leadership of Akhmed Zakayev, which has five armed formations within the Ukrainian army—did not join the broad coalition. It also does not include Ingush organizations.
Zakayev refused to answer the editorial office’s questions about the activities of the Caucasus Union and the prospects for joint actions with the organization he leads. The Ingush Independence Committee announced that it cooperates with the Chechen opposition movement NIYSO, a number of Dagestani political activists, and also with national movements in Yakutia, Kalmykia, Buryatia, and Bashkiria.
“It is too early to talk about a consensus, but we see a positive trend in this direction,” noted Ansar Garko.
Another problem in unifying anti-colonial movements is that they perceive the same territories as part of different historical entities. A good example is Kuban.
“It is important for us to establish a dialogue with Circassian organizations. We call this land Kuban, they call it Circassia. Of course, it is not going smoothly, primarily due to the resistance of radical groups of both Circassians and Kubanians,” explains Dmitry Dorovskikh, co-founder of the “Raspberry Wedge” movement.
Last year, the Kuban/Circassia Coordination Council was formed, a group open to anyone ready for dialogue, our source continues: “As a result, it turned out that almost our only disagreements concern the name of the future country and its flag. Otherwise, the vision is almost the same. However, this only applies to those with whom we can conduct a dialogue and who share the values of freedom and democracy. Radicals will always have their own opinion, which will not coincide with ours.”
Another significant line of division among North Caucasian peoples remains the relationship between Circassians and Karachay-Balkars. Among the latter, the number of those fighting on the side of Ukraine is now only in the dozens, Yusuf Tunçbilek, a master’s student in Middle Eastern sociology and anthropology at Marmara University in Istanbul, told the editorial office.
“In the Caucasus region, the closest neighbors and at the same time rivals of the Karachay-Balkars are the Circassians. What happens if the Russian Federation collapses? Circassian activists on the Ukrainian side have already outlined a goal—the creation of Circassia. But where will it be? In the land where the Karachay-Balkars live? No nation can accept such disregard,” he explains.
Karachay-Balkars with opposition views perceive the war between Ukraine and Russia as a struggle between two Christian powers to which they are indifferent,” Tuncbilek continues. And pro-Israel statements from Kyiv raise questions similar to those that led to the conflict in the Ingush Independence Committee.
What will happen after the war?
All representatives of North Caucasian movements interviewed by the editorial office had in common that they rejected the agenda of the Russian opposition.
“I am convinced that one of the main results of the year is that even those who considered Russian liberals abroad have finally lost their illusions about what kind of country they intend to build after the regime change. The rhetoric of imperialism has not disappeared from their considerations, nor is it weakening,” notes Circassian activist Kase Kik.
The main difference between the Russian opposition and independence movements is the question of preserving the “Russian centralized state,” explains Vladimir Dovdanov, vice-chairman of the Congress of the Oyrat-Kalmyk People: “They continue the same line, albeit with a few democratic elements. They propose referendums, elections. But when the Russian Empire occupied us, no referendums were held.”
Given Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the interviewees assess the prospects for this year differently, but they agree on one thing: it is extremely difficult to predict what path the new American president will choose.
Such an outcome will slow down the decolonization process until the next military escalation
“A possible end to the active stage of military actions in Ukraine will deepen the crisis within the Moscow elites and could destabilize all of Russia. This will give a chance to liberation movements. However, a quick ceasefire is unlikely. But the continuation of the war will deepen economic and social problems in the Russian Federation; every day there are fewer people ready to fight for it for ideological or financial reasons, and that is also an important result,” believes a representative of the Dagestan National Center.
A cessation of hostilities is inevitable, says Nogai activist Anvar Kurmanakayev. In his opinion, in that case, it will still be advantageous for the Ukrainian authorities to support anti-colonial associations: “Then strong movements may appear in Russia, of which there are currently few due to a lack of resources.”
The head of the Circassian Congress, Kase Kik, also speaks about a possible freezing of the front in 2025. He believes that the policy of appeasing Russia carries serious risks for Europe and the world, calling such steps a “repetition of the 1938 Munich Agreement” and emphasizing the need to make maximum efforts for Kyiv’s victory.
Dmitry Dorovskikh from the Raspberry Wedge movement admits that Trump is an unpredictable figure, but at the same time believes that the most likely scenario is a “freezing” of the war and warns of the risks of this possibility.
“It would be something like new Minsk agreements; the White House could easily present it as the promised end of the conflict. Such an outcome would slow down the decolonization process until the next military escalation—and that, as a result of the policy of appeasing the aggressor, would no longer be limited to Ukraine alone,” our source concludes.
