Promethean Liberation: Russia’s Emerging National and Regional Movements

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 greater autonomy for 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 “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 further 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 analyze the new movements that are being attacked by the Kremlin and which are poised to play a more prominent role in Russia’s devolution. Centrifugal initiatives that challenge the hyper-centralized Russian state can be identified within the frame of “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; and
• The strategies employed by state officials and non-governmental organizations in Europe, Asia, and North America which support national liberation movements inside Russia.