— I am the chairman of the Smolensk Republican Center, which promotes the idea of independence of the Smolensk region. The center was founded in Warsaw on 13 August 2023 after I, at that time a deputy of the Smolensk Regional Duma, left the region and decided with like-minded people to lead the fight for the Smolensk Republic. For obvious geographical, historical and demographic reasons, we see it in a close union with the future European Belarus. Now the team of our center is promoting the ideas of a special Smolensk identity associated with the space of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Krivia, and is also working on creating the legislative foundations of the future Smolensk Republic. We strive to consolidate Smolensk residents. In a word, we are creating the political alternative that will be in demand in the Smolensk region in the event of the collapse of the current Russian regime and statehood. In socio-economic and demographic terms, the Smolensk region is now a typical endangered poor region of the middle zone, artificially supported by handouts from the federal center. And in our case, it is also used as a buffer zone to protect Moscow, and also as a base for organizing wars of conquest. Officials and supervisory authorities have created fraudulent schemes in municipalities to feed them from the budget. Young people and the working population are leaving for big cities. Business is strangled by the tax system and laws of the Russian Federation. There are no jobs; work is only available in companies and firms associated with the military-industrial complex. It is impossible to count how many people left during the outbreak of the war. After the de-occupation of the Smolensk region from federal troops, punishers from the Center for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Center for Combating Extremism – Ed.) the FSB and the lustration of high-ranking accomplices of the Putin regime, parliamentary elections will be held. It is assumed that the form of government in the future republic, located within the current borders of the Smolensk region, will be parliamentary.
Reforms will also be carried out: self-government – there will be fewer districts, municipalities will have more freedoms, economic – state corporations and property of the Russian Federation will be transferred to the republic. The successor organizations of historical religious denominations and confessions in the Smolensk region will be given ownership of religious objects of cultural heritage for their intended use. Last year, when I was a deputy of the Smolensk Regional Duma, I announced our goals and objectives at a press conference in Warsaw. Everything that I said there could be interpreted by “Russian legislation” as calls for a violation of territorial integrity, as well as the creation of a paramilitary structure to violate the sovereignty of Russia. It’s clear that if they declared me a person violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, they would have to admit that there is a movement for independence in the Smolensk region. Having waited until the end of my term in the Duma, so as not to give me free PR, they collected “moss from the swamp”: discrediting the RF Armed Forces, speaking out against the war and participating in an undesirable organization – I am a delegate to the Congress of National Deputies. The label of “foreign agent” was attached to cast doubt on my subjectivity and independence of actions in the eyes of uninformed potential supporters trying to understand our chaotic global world, and to make it more difficult for me to promote ideas on social networks and the media. This is an obvious recognition of me as an ideological enemy. Which means I’m working in the right direction. Having learned about my new status, I opened a bottle of Prosecco and booked a table at the restaurant for my wife and friends. We are helping our supporters obtain asylum in Europe, and we are going to present the draft Constitution of the Smolensk Republic for public discussion. We are also working to create a unit of Smolensk volunteers fighting for the freedom of Ukraine, and therefore for our future freedom.
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