Recently, emigrants from the United States, Spain, and Poland approached me—Marat Akhmerov, my brother, and I—with a request for letters of support for their political asylum applications. The government of independent Tatarstan in exile does assist emigrants from Russia and other countries; we prioritise those who fought for the independence of their nations, as well as those engaged in human rights activities.
Over the course of five years, we, on behalf of our government and the Tatarstan Centre, have submitted approximately 350 petitions concerning emigrants, and, following our request, approximately 10 individuals were removed from the Interpol database. Furthermore, following a collective decision, letters of support were also sent on behalf of the socio-political movement “Free Idel-Ural.”
A rather interesting situation has developed here: those who approach us for help praise and support Tatar national movements—the TOC and the government of independent Tatarstan in exile—yet, after receiving a letter from us, most of them forget about us. Wealthy emigrants have also approached us, offering between $1,000 and $5,000 for each petition, but we refuse to accept their money as we are not a commercial organisation. As for the application process, we first make copies at a copy centre and then send the documents by registered mail, meaning we cover the costs ourselves.
Since we’ve already touched on the topic of emigrants, it’s worth noting that quite a few Russian and Russian-speaking emigrants hold pro-Russian views, support Putin’s policies, and are active members of the Russian-speaking community in Europe, Asia, and the United States—and they are also anti-Ukrainian. In the UK, the situation is much the same: no matter how many Russians I meet, almost all of them support Russia’s aggressive foreign policy. Therefore, when we write petitions, we examine the individual—who they are: an imperialist, a champion of peoples’ rights, or simply someone using us to solve their own personal problems.
As we already know, tens of thousands of people have left the national republics and remote regions of the Russian Federation, yet national liberation movements abroad consist of only a few dozen activists. We must all think about how to increase the number of fighters in our ranks who must fight for the freedom of their peoples.
An archival photograph from Germany depicting Russian imperial immigrants.
Sincerely,
Rafis Kashapov – Prime Minister of the Government of Independent Tatarstan in Exile
