Stanislav Suslov, a representative of the Movement for the Independence of Siberia, believes that the collapse of Russia, which he calls the half-disintegrated USSR, is inevitable. But, in his opinion, it is necessary to divide Russia in a civilized manner. “Our main goal is good neighbourliness, respect for all nationalities that inhabit this vast territory, as is done, by the way, in Europe,” said S. Suslov in an interview with LRT.lt.
Recently, the Forum of Free Peoples of Post-Russia was held in Vilnius, and the participants set as their goal the disintegration of Russia into several independent states.
It was also attended by Siberian S. Suslov, who now lives in Serbia and believes that Siberia should be independent and stop pumping out resources and deporting its inhabitants to the war with Ukraine.
“About 10% of the adult male population has already been sent to slaughter, mainly in the Altai Territory and the Republic of Tyva. What is this? Essentially, this is genocide. That means, Moscow, the Moscow junta, chose regions and nations for which, in quotes, ‘they do not feel sorry’,” says S. Suslov in an interview with LRT.lt.
— You took part in a forum in Vilnius, the title of which included the word “Post-Russia”. What do you personally mean by this word?
Yes, the forum title contains the word post-Russia, because after the collapse of Russia, which is inevitable, independent states should be formed on this territory. It is difficult to say now what their number is, but nevertheless, this process will still occur in the same way as the Soviet Union collapsed.
After all, as was noted at our forum, the modern so-called Russian Federation is, in general, not even the Russian Federation, but in fact, the Soviet Union, which did not disintegrate then, in 1991. Therefore, what we have now, what comes from this territory, is the whole process of an attempt at restoration, a return to the Soviet past.
But the fact is that the world is changing, now is not the 17th, nor the 18th, not even the 19th century, there is already a different communication between people. There, the so-called Putin junta continues to live according to its own reasons, its own mentality, just as at the end of the 19th century. In general, they are all dragging this country, this entire huge territory along with them.
Accordingly, since the Soviet Union did not disintegrate, this process, of course, will be painful in some places, not in others, but it is inevitable. This aggression toward Ukraine, which was started by the Putin junta, actually launched the process of inevitable collapse. I think that in the near future, many more politicians throughout the world will understand this. They are already beginning to understand, and it is very good that they are beginning to understand. Our forum works precisely for this.
— You said that the process of the collapse of the Soviet Union did not end in the 90s. But if then, say, Yeltsin had not appointed Putin as his successor, but, say, had chosen Nemtsov or not chosen anyone, but just normal elections had taken place, as in all democratic states, this process could have somehow been redirected to another direction?
Hard to tell. You see, we can only guess about the past or the future. The main thing, it seems to me, based on the mistakes of the past, is to try not only to predict but to somehow programme a future that we can build. (…)
There is one Eastern wisdom that says that if something happens once, it may never happen. If it happened twice, it will happen again in the future. If the process of forming the beautiful Russia of the future did not happen in 1917 and then did not happen in 1991, then it means it will never happen.
– Let’s talk about your region – Siberia. You say that you do not stand for disintegration, but for the civilized division of Russia, and even for the creation of a kind of United States of Siberia.
Siberia is a huge region. We can say that Siberia is a territory that stretches from the Urals to Cape Dezhnev. At the same time, it is multinational, because not only, let’s say, people of European appearance live there.
Siberia is a territory where many peoples were exiled back in tsarist times, and then in Soviet times. As you know very well, a lot of people from Lithuania were also exiled there.
-By the way, the forum in Vilnius was held on the Day of Mourning and Hope, when the country remembers the deportees.
Yes, after the forum we met with my colleague Andrius Almanis and saw that a memorial evening was being held at the memorial, and the names of the victims of KGB terror were read out. A man came up who recognized Andrius and it turned out that he was also our fellow countryman, born in Krasnoyarsk… A lot of Lithuanians were exiled to Siberia in Soviet times, and some died, some survived, some later, fortunately, returned to Lithuania.
So, the fact is that people of different nationalities live on the territory of Siberia, not only indigenous people but also representatives of other nationalities – a lot of Ukrainians and Poles. Naturally, Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians. There are many Russians from other territories, from the middle zone. In general, this is a very multinational region.
Of course, throughout this vast territory the Buryats will claim their independence, Sakha will also claim, as well as the Altai Territory, Tyva, and so on. Naturally, everyone will want some kind of independence.
In 2012, when I had already left Siberia, one person in Novosibirsk organized the Siberian Power Union and officially registered it. But he had a different position. In his opinion, the Russians should dominate the region, because, and he openly talks about this, the nationalities that inhabit the territory of Siberia will definitely betray everyone and go under Chinese rule.
But our position is completely the opposite. Our committee is absolutely against this because here, each nationality will determine their position and their policy. I hope that everyone’s policy will be sound and, so to speak, civilized, pro-European in orientation.
After that, we can talk about whether states, a confederation, or something else will be created. Maybe someone will want to participate in this, but someone will not want to. In any case, our main goal is good neighbourliness, and respect for all nationalities that inhabit this vast territory, as is done, by the way, in Europe.
I now live in Serbia, in the region of Vojvodina, and we have four national languages, our inscriptions are all in four languages. All this is predetermined by law. Therefore, this is a good example of creating a multinational federation or state. It doesn’t matter what it looks like, but it’s an example of a democratic society, I think.
-How would you assess the situation in Siberia now? Independent sociologists conducted surveys there, and residents say that the centre has simply forgotten the regions, that no one cares about them, and that the authorities are only interested in pumping out resources. In general, Siberia is considered a rich region, with oil, gas, gold and diamonds. What are Putin’s plans for your region?
I think that the authorities treat all regions that are outside the first or second Moscow Ring Road the same way. These are simply sources of income.
By the way, about resources, now everyone talks so much about resources. But resources are a dead-end branch of development. Resources in the economy, in the finished product, let’s say, should be from 5 to 15%, you understand? Technology is important. We need to attract investment. To do this, we need to create a favourable investment climate and develop our technologies and science. Moreover, Siberia is very promising in this regard in some regions, in particular, in Novosibirsk, for example, or Tomsk.
Now Russia is, in fact, a completely resource-rich country, which is so mired in this strategy of selling resources that it even neglects the basis of its foundations – its agriculture. For example, up to 85% of the chicken population and breeding eggs are purchased abroad. Because Russia is not capable of producing such a quantity of poultry at all. Although this is the cheapest food for the main segments of the population.
In addition, Moscow is raking in human resources for the war. About 10% of the adult male population has already been sent for slaughter, these are the territories of the Altai Territory and the Republic of Tyva. What is this? Essentially, this is genocide. That means, Moscow, the Moscow junta, chose regions and nations that, in quotes, “they do not feel sorry for”. They choose them and send them to war.
Also, in the modern, half-disintegrated Soviet Union, there is such an interesting paradox. For example, during the Second World War everything was based on propaganda, on the idea of some kind of independence from fascism, so to speak. Now the propaganda is becoming even more aggressive.
This victory is becoming stronger every year. What, my colleagues at the forum spoke about in general, is that not only, relatively speaking, the Russian population, but also the national population falls under propaganda. Also, they added another material resource to this. That is, here you go, you can send your son or husband to war, they will dispose of him there, and after that, you will receive money and buy a car or something else that you can afford.
By the way, there are recent statistics that sales volumes of Russian-made cars have increased very noticeably there. There you go. This is generally a diabolical system, I don’t even know what to call it, it’s not even “divide and conquer”, but even worse.
Therefore, the problem also lies in the fact that the population, of course, is under the catastrophic pressure of propaganda, this is a kind of military propaganda that brainwashes people very strongly.
— Siberians are still afraid of China, which will come and share everything with the West?
Several years ago, still before the war, I was in Moscow, staying with friends. We tried not to touch on the topic of politics, but we did touch on it by accident. In general, they almost killed me. There was a conversation about resources. So, people believe that everyone wants to attack them all the time.
Russia, if we look at world statistics, is not a unique source of resources. Resources are available everywhere, in all countries of the world. There is nothing unique in Russia that does not exist in other places. Propaganda has been telling everyone for decades that we are so rich, with such resources, and we need to protect it all, everyone wants to take it from us.
This is one thing, but the second thing that has been used by propaganda for a very long time is that our grandfathers suffered, they defended their homeland, not for fascism. They suffered so much that we also need to learn to suffer in the same way as they suffered, and perhaps suffer even more. Because, you see, you live well now, and, naturally, people began to live better than before.
So they are frightened by the fact that this one will come, the other one will come, they will take everything from you, they will rob you, and so on, but in reality, they are the ones, who are slowly robbing. So, using these tales, they continue to rob, they continue to use people as a resource and as cannon fodder.
In addition, complete Russification is being imposed. For example, a video is released where everyone is dancing – Russians, Altaians, Tuvans, and so on.
-So this is the Soviet-style friendship of nationalities?
There is a phrase, Bush said, that America is the only country where a person of any nationality can speak and feel like an American. But in Russia, maybe they wanted to create something similar, but it is turning out differently.
Despite all these clips, if one of the Buryats or Tuvans comes to Moscow, he will be tortured there by police patrols. They will constantly check documents and generally will treat him and treat them as some kind of stranger. Not as people, or citizens of their country. What does this mean? This suggests that yes, the attitude of the centre to the regions is the attitude towards the colony. (…)
China views Russia, no matter what the propaganda says, as a little dog that has been given a few bones to make it happy, has been stroked on the head, and the little dog is dragging a cart of gold with it there. They will probably even feed her sometimes. But in reality, China does not take anything from Russia for money – it takes almost everything for nothing.
Most likely, they want, perhaps, to wait for the complete weakening of Russia and then calmly come there and, perhaps, not even by military means, but perhaps in some other way.
12 years ago, when I left Russia, my friends often travelled to the Far East, and one day when they returned, they were very shocked. They were shocked by how huge the Chinese enclaves there are and how great they feel there. For example, Russian women there are happy to marry Chinese, because the Chinese don’t drink, the Chinese work, and there you can go to China with the Chinese, and so on.
— What are the moods of Siberians now? After all, they always had a craving for freedom; for example, there was no serfdom there; protest sentiments were always quite strong. But in one interview you said that now people are afraid.
Some are afraid, and some have fallen under the pressure of propaganda because any normal person cannot stand it. Here you can remember the Strugatsky brothers and their “Inhabited Island”. Naturally, some are under the pressure of propaganda, and others are afraid to express their opinions. I cannot say exactly what percentage, for example, absolutely supports the policies of imperial Moscow. Many are simply silent, living their lives, so to speak, waiting for something to change.
—What about the academic intelligentsia? You talked about the scientific towns of Novosibirsk and Tomsk. Is there any data on how they react to what is happening and whether they react? Or are they forced to go into some kind of internal emigration?
Even among them, some support the regime, of course. I’m telling you, it’s just wild propaganda. Wild propaganda based on victory, telling you that you need to suffer, that there are enemies around and that they will take away resources, even to the point that NATO troops will come. This is approximately how the Germans came then, and some ran there and greeted them joyfully, but others did not. In general, completely wild analogies, you know.
I somehow had contact with classmates in the group and when they saw the Ukrainian flag in my avatar, it all started! I was simply amazed at the depth of the darkness into which they had all fallen, of course, it was not the whole class, but still.
Therefore, I say that on the one hand, we lack counter-propaganda everywhere. On the other hand, of course, after the inevitable victory of Ukraine, there will be some kind of awareness.
The collapse of consciousness must occur. It will inevitably happen. Because, again, there are two ways. Maybe this collapse of consciousness will occur, or maybe there will be a complete closure and internal terror will set in, which again for some time can plunge the country into the darkness of the Soviet era.
— Are your ideas supported in Europe?
In Europe, many, even politicians, do not realize the danger that is now emanating from the territory of the so-called Russian Federation. Because they don’t understand, this is a completely different mentality. They are cultured, wealthy people, and in general, they simply cannot even imagine that it could be completely different, you know? I lived in this environment, and I understand how this can be dangerous for Europe now. (…)
Provocations in the Baltic Sea indicate that Russia may attack the Baltic countries and other countries. It won’t be easy for anyone, because we see how Russia acts. Europe uses targeted weapons, for example, it specifically attacks military targets. What is Russia doing? Russia has always, for decades, even probably for centuries, been engaged, first of all, in the complete destruction of everything before its offensive. That is, these are carpet bombings, carpet shelling, and complete destruction.
Who will benefit from this if, for example, they, God forbid, attack and destroy half the territory, and the population is forced to flee? Yes, they will weaken. But what enormous damage will be caused to European countries.
Natalia Zverko
lrt
