Announcing – Promethean Liberation: Russia’s Emerging National and Regional Movements

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Promethean Liberation: Russia’s Emerging National and Regional Movements

Project Director: Janusz Bugajski, Senior Fellow, The Jamestown Foundation

The invasion of Ukraine has accelerated the decline of the Russian state and raised the prospects for domestic turmoil. It has resulted in an unsustainable militarization of the economy, falling state revenues, shrinking financial reserves, military failures, and signs of mounting regional and ethnic unrest. Without structural reforms that boost the civilian economy and absent any autonomy among Russia’s 83 republics and regions, the federal structure will become increasingly unmanageable and vulnerable to movements demanding sovereignty or secession.

Moscow has highlighted its fears by passing new repressive laws and launching campaigns to combat what it regards as “separatism.” In July 2024, the Kremlin declared that 55 national liberation movements had formed an “Anti-Russian Separatist Movement” to promote Russia’s rupture. In November 2024, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the existence of a “terrorist network” consisting of “172 structural divisions organized on national and regional grounds” whose mission is to “divide the Russian Federation into separate states.”

This project will conduct a ground-breaking analysis of the new movements attacked by the Kremlin and poised to play a more prominent role in Russia’s devolution. Centrifugal initiatives that challenge the hyper-centralized Russian state can be defined as “Prometheism”—a geopolitical strategy devised during the 20th century in Poland and Ukraine to combat Russian imperialism and liberate captured nations. In evaluating the international revival of Prometheism, three dimensions will be addressed:

  • The domestic indicators of unrest and the emergence of regional, republican, and national movements, eliciting repressive responses from Moscow.
  • The growing role of exiled activists and diaspora networks operating in Western countries and other states neighboring Russia campaigning for regional sovereignty or ethno-national liberation.
  • The strategies of state officials and non-governmental organizations in Europe, Asia, and North America supportive of national liberation movements inside Russia.

 

 

Upcoming Project Event:

 

Conference

RUSSIA’S FUTURE: A CHALLENGE FOR U.S. POLICY

Co-Sponsored by The Jamestown Foundation, Delphi Global Research Center, & the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum 

Date: Thursday, June 12, 2025, Washington, D.C.

Time: 9:00 am – 5:30 pm

Venue: The Bush School of Government & Public Service

1620 L St NW, Washington, D.C. 20036

 

Stay Tuned: Registration to Come!