Russia is sadly a colonial state too, historically at least. The Russian empire sent Cossacks out into the steppes to harass and exploit indigenous people for fur and other valuables, and like any other European empire they sought to build a colonial empire in the east.
Under the Soviet Union of course things got much better, and legally these minority groups and indigenous people were treated as equals and given representation.
As for the modern Russian Federation I can’t say how the situation is for certain, but regardless it would pale in comparison to what has been done and is still being done in the Americas.
If modern Russia is no longer doing these things then it’d be unfair to still consider it settler colonial as the settler colonial model is built on exploitation of a specific nation, if that nation is no longer exploited to a greater degree than the colonizer proletariat/labor aristocracy then its no longer a colonizer settler dynamic as the basis the the settler system no longer exists.
settler colonial model is built on exploitation of a specific nation, if that nation is no longer exploited to a greater degree than the colonizer proletariat/labor aristocracy
Well if you count the semi- and illegal immigrants from the former Soviet republics in Asia (i.e. Tajikistan), maybe? But otherwise, we’re all getting exploited on class basis these days.
Russia is sadly a colonial state too, historically at least. The Russian empire sent Cossacks out into the steppes to harass and exploit indigenous people for fur and other valuables, and like any other European empire they sought to build a colonial empire in the east.
Under the Soviet Union of course things got much better, and legally these minority groups and indigenous people were treated as equals and given representation.
As for the modern Russian Federation I can’t say how the situation is for certain, but regardless it would pale in comparison to what has been done and is still being done in the Americas.
If modern Russia is no longer doing these things then it’d be unfair to still consider it settler colonial as the settler colonial model is built on exploitation of a specific nation, if that nation is no longer exploited to a greater degree than the colonizer proletariat/labor aristocracy then its no longer a colonizer settler dynamic as the basis the the settler system no longer exists.
Well if you count the semi- and illegal immigrants from the former Soviet republics in Asia (i.e. Tajikistan), maybe? But otherwise, we’re all getting exploited on class basis these days.