Thread by @kreiten_irma

This cheerful & vivaceous guy...
is V. Inozemtsev - one of "exemplary" Russian gov. critics, endorsed by R. Fuecks (🇩🇪Greens' party) & author at the latter's LibMod. Let's look at his attitudes on Russian colonialism & his plans for 🇷🇺's future. #goodRussians #RussianColonialism

It's true, Vladislav Inozemtsev rebukes Putin for what he considers "bad" for Russia's development. Westerners might conclude he refutes Russian imperialism, too, yet that's not the case!
(Looking into 1 article, here - but nasty remarks elsewhere, too)
the-american-interest.com/2017/06/29/rus…

First of all, Inozemtsev restates "colonies" as settler colonies & sets these off against "dependencies" (not using "exploitation colony" as common in scholarly literature). Inferring that Caucasus/Central Asia "should not be counted as colonies, since few colonists lived there."

Mixing up chronology (& role of Caucasus" in 🇷🇺Empire), he claims that European powers set up dependencies "after they were deprived of their colonies" & Russia likewise, after exhausting its "supply of colonists", turned to "relying only on military superiority" & dependencies:

"Siberia" is a part of 🇷🇺 which V. Inozemtsev wants to keep. He argues for "settler colony" by its Russian population & states "Siberia never tried to secede from Muscovy" & "decolonization" occurs when indigenous people fight (mere!) military domination.
britannica.com/place/Siberia

V.I. is factually wrong & with denialist bias.
There were several uprisings, e.g.:
- of Bashkirs 1662-64, 1681–84, 1704-11
- Koryak/Itel'men, 1740s
His "logic" amounts to that where indigenous groups are --ethnically - outnumbered & thus cannot rebel, Russian supremacy's "valid".

This is no minority rights/humanist/sovereignty of Russia's colonized—agenda. The "Putin critic" featured by IFRI, DGAP ... clearly embraces imperialism: "For centuries Russia was a nation that tried to expand into neighboring lands. There is nothing shameful [...]." #goodRussian

He offers a "consolating myth" reg. Soviet Union's collapse: Russia allegedly dismantled the USSR deliberately, relinquishing mere "dependencies" & toward its own benefit. With purpose of safeguarding Russian population against (racial) intermixtures & loss of national coherence:

V. Inozemtsev wants to preserve & rejuvenate a fossile; he favors remodeling the Russian Empire, going by economic rationale: Forgo RF's territories which are a "drag on its economy" ("dependencies") & parry overstretch, but modernize Siberia as profit-oriented "giant colony".

Russia is blamed for investing into the Caucasus more than gaining by it; the economist thus taps into the old colonial myth* of "imperial self-sacrifice" or "feeding the Caucasus" - as chauvinist A. Navalny has put it.
(*see Bruce Grant's "The captive and the gift" on this...)

With other words, V. Inozemtsev advocates cutting Russia's losses, while rebuilding a reduced Russian Empire in stronger & more viable way. He replaces "historical ties"-considerations & post-imperial/-Soviet nostalgia with "rational" planning, thus mitigating "Russia's trauma".

He also envisages conscious "population policies" for Siberia, promoting an influx of foreign (European) migrants: "One may agree that the Russian Far East needs migrants, but it would be much better if they came from different, and even competing, countries [..]." #goodRussians

V. Inozemtsev even wants to coax "Westerners"/USA into some colonialist partnership, i.e. joint "development" of the Far East. In my regard, this is not too dissimilar to how Vladimir Putin courted the West for an "anti-terrorism alliance" in the early 2000s. #RussianColonialism