Today’s geopolitical map of the world resembles tectonic plates in motion. While the West’s attention is riveted to the front lines in Ukraine, in another corner of the “axis of evil” – in Iran – a drama is unfolding that should become a fundamental lesson for Western diplomacy. It is about enslaved nations and their role in dismantling tyrannies.
The Kurdish issue in Iran today is not just a local conflict. It is a model that demonstrates why the West should reconsider its attitude towards the internal structure of the Russian Federation.
In Iran, the Kurdish regions have traditionally been the centre of the most fierce resistance to the ayatollah regime. The slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” (Jin, Jiyan, Azadî), which resonated worldwide, is of Kurdish origin.
Why is this important? Because the multiethnic factor is the “Achilles’ heel” of any empire, Tehran, like Moscow, relies on rigid centralisation. The suppression of identity (Kurds, Baluchis, Azerbaijanis) creates internal fault lines (Azerbaijan is already, by the way, moving troops to the Iranian border, beyond which it has ethnic and historical territories).
Enslaved nations have the greatest motivation to fight and overthrow tyranny because for them it is a matter of survival, not simply a change of political course.
In this context, parallels involuntarily arise with the Russian Federation, a prison of nations, where, in the words of Taras Shevchenko, “from Moldovan to Finn, everything has been silent in all languages…”
Yet the West has relied for decades on the “liberal opposition” in Moscow, ignoring national movements in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Chechnya, or Kalmykia. This was not just a strategic mistake, but a criminal shortsightedness, and the Kurdish example in Iran highlights it.
Now, in conditions where an American land invasion (and it is obvious that we cannot do without it) may come to a head, a turning point in the West’s policy towards empires may (and must!) come: from “maintaining stability” to “decolonisation.”
This is exactly what the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and other organisations have been calling on our allies to do for decades: WACL, APACL… What the Anti-Imperial Block of Nations is now calling for.
For a long time, Western policy towards Russia was based on the fear of its disintegration. As the saying goes, “better one understandable tyrant than ten unknown states with nuclear weapons.”
However, the events in Iran prove that the unresolved issue of enslaved nations only preserves aggression. If a people is deprived of the right to subjectivity, it becomes a resource for imperial conquests.
This should change the policy towards Russia:
- The West must recognise that the Russian Federation is not a monolithic state, but a prison of nations. Supporting national movements is not “interference” but rather support for human rights.
- Free Kurdistan in Iran or the independent republics of the Caucasus and Volga in the Russian Federation are natural allies of the democratic world, which will be interested in peace in order to awaken and build their own statehood.
- When national fringes realise that their resources and people are being used for someone else’s war (as the Kremlin is currently doing with the Buryats or Tuvans), the regime will begin to crack from within.
Iran cannot be democratised while Tehran oppresses its minorities. Similarly, Russia cannot be made safe while it remains an empire.
For Western countries, this means:
- Rejection of “Moscow-centricity”: It is necessary to open “liaison offices” with national movements, and not only with Russian emigrants in Berlin.
Support for information broadcasting: Creation of media in the languages of the nationalities of the Russian Federation (Tatar, Bashkir, Erzya, etc.) to counter the propaganda of the “Russian world.” Something like “Radio Liberty,” only with the dominant theme of national (or regional) liberation and with a modern, versatile technical base.
Sanctions with regional focus: Stimulating economic separatism through support for local elites ready to break with Moscow.
- Financial support for existing armed formations of the nations enslaved by Moscow within the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the creation of new ones. Scaling up this process of creating prototypes of the armies of future independent states in the expanses of post-Russia.
- Awareness of the economic benefits of equal business with the newly emerged states liberated from Moscow’s tyranny. It is they, not Moscow, who possess limitless natural resources.
So, we live in the Time of Courage, or its absence. And here the question is not “Who is Churchill to whom?”, but “Will we meet Washington with a new and righteous law?” (T. Shevchenko). The Kurdish struggle in Iran is a reminder: it is impossible to build a stable world order, ignoring the aspirations of millions of people for Freedom. Therefore, the West should stop being afraid of the “parade of sovereignties” in Russia.
The turning point must be the transition from a strategy of deterrence to a strategy of support for liberation. Only the decolonisation of the last empires—whether the Iranian theocracy or the Russian Federation—will bring lasting peace.
The topic of enslaved nations is a “silver bullet” against Russian imperialism and its allies in the world. If the West starts supporting the right to self-determination within the Russian Federation, the war in Ukraine will end not with a “freeze” but with the elimination of the source of the threat.
Freedom is not complete as long as it belongs only to chosen nations.
