Buryat opposition politician, member of the Forum of Free Peoples of Russia Zurtan Khaltarov: “Obviously, those who joined the Russian army made their civilizational choice. The Buryats can have only one army – the national liberation army. You can, of course, pretend and join the Russian army in order to learn how to fight, but all representatives of national minorities in the Russian army, and it was the case in the Soviet army, are at the level of pariahs. We are not taught to fight, we are not promoted to the highest command positions, so we serve only as cannon fodder in the Kremlin’s imperial interests. If the Buryats (in the army of the Russian Federation) are so strongly associated with the Russian state, then why do we call them Buryats then, and not Russian soldiers of Buryat origin? If we perceive ourselves as part of the Russian world, that’s all, then we can’t call ourselves Buryats.”
