On 18 March, a presentation of the ABN human rights project “Putin’s Real Prisoners: Political Prisoners of Enslaved Nations” was held in London.
The event was attended by leaders of the Anti-Imperial Block of Nations, representatives of national liberation movements of enslaved peoples, diplomats, and lawyers.
The presentation was opened by the President of the Anti-Imperial Block of Nations, Oleh Medunytsya.
“Today, as in all our previous presentations, we emphasize that peace in Europe is possible only after the decolonization of Russia, when the peoples under the rule of Moscow will receive the right to self-determination and the creation of their own states,” Oleh Medunytsya addressed the audience. “This is not a radical idea. This is the same principle on the basis of which a new world order was built after the Second World War. The world becomes safer when empires disappear and peoples become free. That is why today we are not only talking about political prisoners. We are talking about the future freedom of the nations whose representatives can be seen at our exhibition. And also about the responsibility of the democratic world – not to close our eyes to the imperial nature of modern Russia.
And it is here, in Great Britain, that it is appropriate to recall an important historical lesson. Britain was also a great empire. But Great Britain found within itself the political wisdom and strength to give its colonies freedom. Today, many former colonies are independent states, partners of Great Britain and part of the international democratic community. This is an example of how empires can transform and give peoples a chance for their own future, – the President of the ABN emphasized. – Russia has taken a different path. It could not and, it seems, did not want to abandon the imperial logic. Instead, it is trying to maintain the empire through force, wars, repressions and fear. That is why we are convinced that true and lasting peace in Europe is possible only after the decolonization of Russia. When the peoples who are today under the rule of Moscow will receive the right to self-determination and the creation of their own states,” Oleh Medunytsya concluded.
The Prime Minister of the Government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Akhmed Zakayev, who was present at the presentation, noted: “According to the latest data from the human rights project to support political prisoners “Memorial”, in Russia and the territories occupied by it, almost three thousand prisoners are under politically motivated criminal prosecution. This means that we are not dealing with isolated cases, but with thousands of human lives. For modern European thinking, such a phenomenon seems almost unthinkable – something outside the bounds of normal political life. But for Russia, unfortunately, this is not an exception, but one of the usual forms of its historical existence: a state that has relied on violence, repression and imprisonment for centuries is constantly reproducing the same model.
Today I would like to talk about the struggle of the Chechen people for independence, – continued Akhmed Zakayev, – about a long, tragic, heroic and still not fully understood by the world community. When we talk about Chechen history, we should not reduce it only to the events of the late 20th century and the last wars. The struggle of the Chechen people for freedom did not begin with the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is a centuries-old historical struggle, in which each generation has faced the same reality: Russia’s attempts to subjugate the people, deprive them of political will and break their dignity. But each time the Chechen people reacted with resistance.
And therefore we have no other way – Russia must cease to exist!”, concluded Akhmed Zakayev.
Particularly moving was the speech of the Head of the Government of Independent Tatarstan, a political prisoner of the Putin regime, Rafis Kashapov. Mr. Rafis spoke about his own ordeal in Moscow prisons and about the support for his struggle from people from all over the world. He proposed, under the coordination of the Anti-Imperial Block of Nations, to hold an action – writing letters of support for modern political prisoners who represent the national liberation movements of enslaved peoples.
Rafis Kashapov also thanked the leaders of the Anti-Imperial Block of Nations for their consistent work to protect political prisoners of the Putin regime.
Alimkhan Timayev, a representative of the Assembly of the Nations of the Caucasus, described the issue of political repression in the Caucasus and called for coordinating human rights work to support all those repressed by Moscow.
The exhibition of the same name, a human rights project of the ABN, was introduced to the audience by the executive director of the Anti-Imperial Block of Nations, Oleh Vitvitsky, and the director of the Stepan Bandera Museum of the Ukrainian Liberation Struggle, Hennadiy Ivanushchenko. They focused on the stories of struggle, persecution, and tribulations of the main characters of the exhibition – activists of national movements of colonized peoples: Chechens, Buryats, Yakuts, Kalmyks, Karelians, and others.
The Anti-Imperial Bloc of Peoples believes that it is necessary to unite efforts for the real liberation of imprisoned freedom fighters. To this end, the human rights project has already been presented in over twenty countries around the world: in parliaments, municipalities, and museums in the capitals of leading Western countries.
