63-year-old Vladimir Dovdanov is a native of the regional center Gorodovikovsk (Bashanta in Kalmyk) in the southwest of the Republic of Kalmykia. In the Soviet years he served in Mongolia, then worked in the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 1991 he organized and headed the Republican Taekwondo Federation in Kalmykia. For a long time he participated in various opposition movements, was a member of the regional branch of the Yabloko party, collaborated with independent ethno-linguistic activists.
In 2021, Dovdanov was elected a member of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk People, a representative body of the national intelligentsia and opposition communities, which held face-to-face meetings in Elista before the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine. In 2022, the leadership of the Congress publicly condemned the Russian invasion of a neighboring state, after which most of the organization’s members were forced to leave the country. At the end of that year, the Congress published a declaration of independence for Kalmykia as its main goal.
— You now live in Lithuania. How did you get there?
“I never thought that in my old age I would be forced to leave my native republic. Especially when you consider that in recent years I had health problems that limited my ability to work, and I was not a particularly public person. He helped his friends from our opposition, wrote articles – but nothing more. Everything changed after the Russian attack on Ukraine: on March 8 and 10, our Congress signed a statement of sharp rejection of this criminal war and an appeal to our youth not to take part in it.
We immediately began to be pressured by the Center “E” – a vile organization that should be banned immediately after gaining independence, and its employees should be lustred. It was clear that it was dangerous to stay in the country, and my wife and I went to Moscow and tried to get Greek visas in order to leave at least temporarily. At first everything went well, but then they abruptly refused. I assume that some signal from the organs could be transmitted to them. Since I myself am a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – the Soviet one, of course – I perfectly understood the methods of their work and future plans, I knew perfectly well what they could do to us, so we had to look for other opportunities for an urgent departure.
Have you received personal threats? Or was it about pressure on Congress as a whole?
— Personal, of course. True, they were afraid to openly denounce me, call me names, and scold me. I still have some authority, including among police officers – after all, many learned taekwondo from me, everyone knows who I am, what I did before. Besides, they knew that I was telling the truth – and how can you be punished for this? At one time I tried to hide, spent the night not at home, but quickly stopped, I decided that I would sit out at a point in the steppe? I returned home – and I was immediately “taken”. Two protocols were drawn up against me, I signed everything. It must be admitted that the employees who made them felt uncomfortable. Apparently, our rhetoric, built on the truth, on historical events, is gaining the upper hand. They simply have nothing to oppose. Naturally, they couldn’t yell at me “shut up” – they understood that I was right.
It must be taken into account that every family in our people, every clan, every sub-ethnos – all suffered during the time of Stalin. Everyone went through the Stalinist deportation, a real genocide: I lost nine uncles in Siberia – from a family of 12 people, among whom was my mother; three survived. Most of the family died, and this story is clear to every Oirat ( some people consider the historical connotations of the ethnonym “Kalmyk” offensive and prefer the self-name “Oirats” – “Idel.Realii” ).
It can be said that the destruction of the Oirats in Russia in one form or another has been systematically going on since 1918, since the Civil War – and ended only in 1957. Then we were allowed to return to our homeland, but at the same time they did not return many territories to the republic, they did not return their houses to people, they did not apologize, they did not pay compensation. But in the deportation, entire families ceased to exist.
– That is, the security forces could sympathize with your rhetoric, because they know the history of their people?
– Exactly. Every person in our country knows about it, even if he works at the “E” Center. When I reminded the employees of the authorities about this, I saw that I was offending something, I saw that in their souls there was a hidden pain for their people. I recently gave an interview to a Ukrainian blogger and pointed to this point. He asked me: “Many will support you if you try to come to power?” Not me personally, but the national liberation movement as a whole. And I named the figure – 50-60% among the police, especially among privates, junior and middle officers. Among the FSB officers, of course, it is less – 10-15%.
We expect that when we return back, many people who are not drugged or zombified will take our side – and together we will build our state without the participation of Russians. We do not wish harm to the Russian people, let them build their own state too – just without us.
— How did you end up leaving Russia?
“We discussed the situation with my family, with our colleagues in Congress, and we realized that we need to leave as soon as possible, even if we don’t have European visas. We flew from Mineralnye Vody (where, by the way, I was again delayed for half an hour) and had to get to Istanbul with a transfer in Yerevan, but the flight was delayed – and we did not have time to connect. As a result, we went by taxi to Georgia, got to Tbilisi, flew from there to Istanbul. In Turkey, we were waiting for Lithuanian visas for about a month and since then we have been in Vilnius.
The Russian Ministry of Justice recognized the Supreme Lama of Kalmykia as a “foreign agent”
— In what status do you live in Lithuania?
“We are refugees, we have been waiting for a decision on asylum for a little over a year, and for a long time we did not have the right to work, but these are trifles — I am very grateful to the government of Lithuania and the people of Lithuania for accepting us. We were under stress, in limbo, did not have visas, and here we were given such an opportunity to breathe freely. Moreover, I see many allies of our cause in Lithuania – we participated here in political clubs, met with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Many Lithuanians, who themselves suffered from Russian colonialism, understand our problems and hopes well. I am sure that if – or rather, when – we gain independence, we will have fruitful and mutually beneficial political and economic ties with this state.
– How did you react to the news that you were recognized as a “foreign agent”?
– First of all, I was probably surprised, I was in shock. It’s not that I’m afraid. On the contrary, he was delighted: after so many years – recognition! I was surprised that they chose me. If you look at the activities of the chairman of our Congress Arslang Sandzhiev or his deputy Batyr Boromangnaev , their merits are much higher than mine. I began to think: why did they choose my candidacy? And then I realized – this is a bit of a conspiracy explanation, but the only one I have.
In general, there was one interview where they asked me whether I was a “foreign agent” or not, and I answered – more, probably in jest – that the title of “foreign agent” is given to all “good Russians”, that is, nominally oppositional supporters of imperial values, in order to it was easier for them to infiltrate the Western community. In less than a few days, I myself was appointed one of them – as if they were mocking me.
– It turns out that you became the first Kalmyk “foreign agent”?
— No, the second after the supreme lama Telo Tulku Rinpoche . He’s a spiritual leader; what comparison can I have – a simple citizen, an inhabitant – with him? But, of course, I was reaching out for him, for his knowledge, and just like that, I was suddenly put on a par with him – this is an honor for me.
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