The likelihood that Russia will be held accountable before a court of justice for the genocide and crimes against humanity it has committed in the war against Ukraine grows stronger with each passing day.
In the US Senate, a bipartisan group intends to summon Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Alexander Darchiev, to testify before the Senate on war crimes related to the kidnapping of Ukrainian children.
This event marks the beginning of Russia's prosecution for genocide and crimes against humanity. The Russian ambassador’s testimony before the US Senate on war crimes will also accelerate the process of establishing a Special Tribunal to investigate Russia’s war crimes. As is known, over 40 countries have agreed on the creation of a Special Tribunal to investigate Russia’s war crimes. The number of these countries will increase over time. At the same time, there have been initiatives to involve representatives of stateless peoples who have been victims of Russia’s genocide in the work of the Special Tribunal. The initiative of the Democracy for Ukraine Support Platform regarding this matter is being discussed and gaining support among national activists of peoples under Russian colonial rule. The Democracy for Ukraine Support Platform strives to strengthen its activities related to this, working to give the initiative for the participation of national activists of peoples under Russian captivity in the court process concerning Russia’s genocide and crimes against humanity an international scope.
The increasing likelihood every day that Russia will be held accountable before a court of justice for genocide and crimes against humanity committed against Ukraine in the war has caused the number of those renouncing Russian identity to multiply geometrically. Hundreds of individuals have applied to judicial bodies to renounce Russian identity and attempt to change their national affiliation. According to Russian legislation, it is not possible to change national affiliation on official documents without a court decision. Russian courts, however, try to reject the vast majority of such applications on various pretexts. According to the Telegram channel "Latecomers to Germany," there has recently been a mass increase in the number of people who previously identified as “Russian” but now try to confirm that they are “German.” Alongside adopting German identity, the number of those seeking to change their Russian identity to Jewish identity has also increased.
Among those applying to the court to change their national identity are an increasing number of representatives of the ancient and indigenous peoples of the geographical entity called the Russian Federation. The number of those renouncing Russian identity and seeking to restore identities such as Shor, Telengit, Tuba, Chelkan, Kumandin, Chukchi, Kets, Evenk, Itelmen, Khanty, Nanai, and Abazin is rapidly increasing. All these developments indicate that Russian society is disintegrating.
One of the strongest, possibly the strongest movements in the Soviet Union during the 1970s was the Jews’ struggle for the right to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel. This process grew so massive that it led to discussions in international relations and the imposition of sanctions against the USSR. One Soviet joke about the Jewish emigration from the USSR to Israel goes that Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, tired of foreign pressure, asked Aleksey Kosygin, chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, how many Jews there were in the USSR. Kosygin replied that there were around two to three million Jews. Brezhnev then asked how many would want to move to Israel if given permission. Kosygin answered seven or eight million.
Now, although there are thousands of people wanting to change their Russian identity to German, Jewish, Tatar, Shor, Telengit, Tuba, Chelkan, Kumandin, Chukchi, Kets, Evenk, Itelmen, Khanty, Nanai, and Abazin identities, with the collapse of Putin’s rashist regime, there will be millions who will want to renounce Russian identity.
Xagani Jafarli,
political scientist
