On 25 August 2026, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination adopted General Recommendation No. 40 on reparatory justice for the harms and continuing consequences of colonialism, the trafficking of enslaved Africans, and racialised chattel slavery. The document calls for action involving historical memory, education, memorials, archives and other forms of restorative justice.
The principle of historical accountability matters. But one question remains: where are the peoples who lived for centuries under Russian imperial domination in this framework?
The Muscovite and later Russian imperial state expanded through conquest, deportation, forced assimilation, suppression of languages and cultures, and the denial of political agency to subjected peoples. The deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 is one of the most notorious examples.
And this is not merely history.
In 2026, the UN itself continues to document how Russia, in occupied Ukrainian territories, coerces residents into acquiring Russian citizenship, imposes Russian laws and education, suppresses Ukrainian language and culture, and carries out forcible transfers and deportations. In March 2026, the UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children by Russian authorities, as well as their enforced disappearance, constitute crimes against humanity.
Russia’s imperial practice, therefore, is not a closed chapter of history. It is continuing today.
The UN can speak about colonialism when discussing European empires of the past. Yet Russia’s own centuries-long imperial domination of peoples across the Caucasus, Volga region, Siberia and the Far East receives far less attention in the global reparations debate.
For ABN, this is a fundamental issue.
Historical justice cannot be selective. If the world recognises peoples’ right to demand truth about colonialism, that right cannot end where Moscow begins.
The Russian Empire must not receive historical amnesty simply because its latest political form calls itself a “federation.”
True decolonisation means more than changing monuments and school curricula. It means recognising subjected peoples’ right to their own history, memory, language and — where they choose it — statehood.
If the world is serious about reparatory justice, it must finally start talking about Moscow’s responsibility as well.
