By Henry
Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian
After the
December 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian
Federation, formerly
just the largest of the USSR’s 15 union republics, became its
successor state.
Today’s Russia
has 85 sub-divisions, all known as “subjects of the
Federation.” They are
grouped into 46 oblasts
(provinces), 22 republics, nine krais (territories), four autonomous
okrugs (districts),
three cities of “federal importance,” and one autonomous
oblast.
All are equal in federal matters but enjoy
different levels
of autonomy. The Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, represents all 85 component entries, with two representatives per unit.
The Russian
Federation includes more than 100 ethnic groups and ethnic Russians
make up just 81 per cent of the
total population, so the 22 republics are designated as
specific territories
allocated to the various non-Russian ethnic peoples in the
country.
Each has its
own constitution and legislature,
official language, and is represented by the federal
government in
international affairs, but otherwise has a great deal of
internal autonomy.
The indigenous ethnic group of a republic
that gives it its
name is referred to as the “titular nationality.”
An autonomous okrug also has a substantial
ethnic minority
but is not allowed to have its own constitution and official
language.
There are secessionist movements in most
republics, but
these are generally not very strong. However, there was
considerable support
for secession among Bashkirs, Chechens, Tatars, and Yakuts after
the breakup of
the Soviet Union, including two savage wars in the case of
Chechnya.
The leaders of many republics used to have
the title of
president, however in 2010 an amendment to the federal law was
adopted that
reserves such title exclusively for the head of the Russian
state.
But relations between the government of
Tatarstan and the
Russian federal government were more complex and carefully
defined in the
constitution of the republic. Its chief executive continues to
be called a
president.
The ethnic
republics can be found anywhere in the country, mainly in
areas like the
northern Caucasus, with its many small ethnic and religious
groups. One of
them, the Republic of Adygea, is even an enclave,
within Krasnodar Krai.
Does this “ethno-federalism,”
a carryover from the old Soviet Union, sound somewhat
esoteric? It shouldn’t,
because we in Canada, apart from the provinces and
territories, also have its equivalent.
We call
them First Nations reserves, and there
are more than 3,100 of them, inhabited by members of the more
than 600 indigenous
groups in the country. Established by treaties and laws, residence
is
governed by band councils as well as the federal government. Many wish to
attain greater sovereign control
over their affairs and enlargement of traditional territories
through land
claims.
Indeed, is
not Nunavut also, for that matter, the Inuit equivalent of an
“ethnic” polity?
Indeed, this might even be said of francophone Quebec, the
“homeland” of most
of Canada’s French-Canadian population.
We should
remember that under the ill-fated 1992 Charlottetown Accord,
an
aboriginal right to self-government would have been enshrined in
the Canadian
Constitution. Moreover, it would have recognized aboriginal
governments as a
third order of government, analogous to the federal government
and the
provinces.
In
ethnically divided societies, devolving power to subnational
units as is done
in ethno-federal systems is a common strategy for conflict
prevention and
resolution.
At the same
time, in ethno-federal states the risk for separatism might be
relatively
higher since ethnic groups have their own latent state, which
arguably gives
them reason and opportunity to eventually fight for secession.
Moscow has
in recent years begun to tighten its control over the ethnic
republics.
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