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.

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 20^th 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: