THE WAR IN UKRAINE AND SOME OF THE REPERCUSSIONS REGARDING THE MINORITY RIGHTS OF RUSSIANS

Abstract

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine is often considered a watershed moment in international relations due to widely being perceived as having brought about a significant restructuring when it comes to the rules-based liberal international order. In addition to the extremely damaging impacts, mainly in terms of the human capital factor from the standpoint of Ukraine, across a multitude of different spheres, Russia’s decision to resort to force and flagrantly violate the sovereignty of a fellow member of the international community with a shared cultural heritage, may also have a profoundly negative effect and undo certain gains when it comes to minority rights in Europe, especially in the case of ethnic Russians, with the country’s ability to secure the rights of its co-ethnics increasingly subject to question marks in Central Asia and also within its own borders. The paper employs qualitative methodology, which is based on the synthesis and analysis of a vast collection of primary and secondary sources that touch upon issues pertinent to the disciplines of international relations, political science, sociology, and nationalism studies. Following a literature review, in which it examines certain underlying assumptions pertaining to the advancements of minority rights in Europe as well as in regions that are part of the continent’s immediate neighborhood, it formulates a three-pronged thesis. Firstly, it contends that Russia’s actions in Ukraine have contributed to a more assimilationist approach to the integration of minority groups in certain European countries such as Latvia, especially in the case of ethnic Russians, in part due to the feelings of vulnerability engendered by the invasion and the tendency to regard them as a fifth column. Secondly, the war has been a contributing factor to making Russia’s relations with many of the Central Asian countries unusually complicated, which is likely to have negative effects with reference to the ethnic Russians residing within these countries. Thirdly, the war may prove to be a destabilizing force within Russia itself and once it eventually comes to an end, there could be a worsening with regard to the plight for the members of the Russian ethnic group residing within those republics where they represent a de facto minority group, for instance in Chechnya and Tuva, where ethnic tensions have boiled over in the past. In essence, the article posits that even though Putin has referred to the importance of protecting the rights of his external kin group as part of his rationale for starting the war, Russia’s actions in Ukraine may turn out to have a larger than expected blowback effect in terms of minority rights, with ethnic Russians being the primary group to be negatively affected, remarkably also within the territory of their own homeland.