Colonialism and persecutions in territories occupied by Russia

As the conference on Crimea began in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, discussions around Russia’s illegal occupation of the peninsula brought forth reflections on persecutions and colonialism, which, despite Moscow’s previous protestations, many observers have maintained accusing it of viciously applying it in occupied territories, among them today’s northern Republic of Karelia. 

During one of the sittings at the offices of the Crimea Platform- a department of The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the autonomous Republic of Crimea, the chairman of the council of Crimean Tatars  Refat Chubarov, said that after listening to voices from South America, Africa, Oceania and Central Asia, he was convinced that the problem that his people -the Crimean Tartars have been facing- since the 2014 occupation, is being experienced in other parts of the world affected by Russia's expansionist ways including the former territory of Finland – now Russian Karelia.

The loss of Karelia during World War II, where Finland engaged the Soviets in bitter battles now known as the Winter War, left a bitter taste in the mouth of Helsinki. The matter remains a cause of distaste for Russia among the Finns after a population of 400,000 ethnic Finns were forced into the Stalinist Soviet Union – opposition continues to this day, The Standard has established.

The matter bears resemblance to the occupation of the Crimea Peninsula where hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tatars who, unto this da,y count themselves Ukrainian, have been forced into the Russian identity through Moscow’s process of Russification – among the factors is banning the use of the Ukrainian language.

“There is ongoing persecution where thousands have been imprisoned, others disappeared and detained as others are killed” Said  Chubarov  adding that “To make matters worse 1Million Russians have moved into the farms and homes previously owned by Tatars.” 

Of the parallels in Russia’s behaviour of occupying territories belonging to its neighbours, in the Karelian question, Russia created a fake, puppet government of “Finland” to legitimise the invasion, Tamilla Tasheva, a Member of the Ukrainian National Assembly representing Crimea, told The Standard.

She said after creating the government, Moscow used a Finn to head it, just as in 2014, when they tried to create the image of a “ people's will” in Crimea through a manipulated referendum. In both cases, the aggressor tried to hide the occupation under the mask of “help” and “rescue.”

“The reason for the Winter War was the so-called 'threat to Leningrad' (today St Petersburg), and the need to create a buffer zone. In the case of Crimea, Russia invented the myth of a 'threat to the Russian-speaking population' and 'NATO bases' that were supposedly about to appear on the Crimean Peninsula. In both cases, these were lies to justify imperial expansion,” Tamilla said.

The consequences of these events are also similar. After the capture of Karelia, hundreds of Finns were forced to leave their homes. The Soviet Union populated their territories with its own citizens, erasing the Finnish history of the region.

“The same is happening in Crimea, where the indigenous people and pro-Ukrainian activists are being displaced, and the peninsula is now colonised by hundreds of thousands of Russians”. 

Persecution of free voices and any emerging dissent in these occupied territories has continued to manifest in different forms away from Moscow's broadly reported method of killing by poisoning, The Standard learns. 

Russia has, in recent times, been using subtle forms such as defamation campaigns, pushing opinion leaders such as educators and journalists to quit their positions, intimidating politicians to go silent or fabricating legal cases against the opposition. While the world often associates political persecution with legal and physical repression, the Russian reality demonstrates a broader and more complex form of control.

Karelian activist Jana Tiihonen, head of the Finno-Ugric human rights organisation “Ranta” that operates largely in Russia's northern republic of Karelia, told The Standard that she has continuously received reports of the arrests of cultural and political activists from non-Russians, simply for defending the rights of their communities.

“ I am aware of multiple cases in which civilians were arrested and beaten during interrogations, with the most recent case I know of occurring in September” She said and added  “I am avoiding mentioning names and specific locations, as doing so could worsen their conditions in captivity.”

A situation unfolded from the early 2010s, when covert repression turned overt. One of the most notable victims of the new way was Karelian historian Yuriy Dmitriev, known for uncovering the execution and burial grounds of Stalin’s political victims at Sandarmokh in Karelia and other similar sights. Dmitriev was not involved in any political movement and did not lead any opposition movement.

“He is a historian devoted to documenting the truth about Soviet-era political executions, bringing closure to families of Stalin’s victims, and ensuring that such crimes are not repeated.” Said Jana, “For this, he was targeted by the authorities and arrested twice: first in 2016, and again in 2018, only weeks after his first release”.

He was arrested under false allegations that have been repeatedly disproven. Artem Cherkasov, one of Dmitriev’s lawyers who worked on the case and other rights experts all concluded that his arrest was connected to his historical work rather than the official charges of sexually abusing his adopted daughter. On June 24, he was officially recognised as a political prisoner by the Russian human rights organisation Memorial. He remains in prison to this day.

Politicians in the republic who challenged the central authorities of the Russian Federation, especially those with popular support and a willingness to openly criticise Moscow's policies, have often been removed from office.

An illustrative case was Vladimir Zavarkin, a municipal deputy in the town of Suoyarvi, who exposed municipal problems caused by Kremlin-appointed officials and even publicly suggested that secession from the Russian Federation might be the only solution to Karelia’s difficulties. He faced a public smear campaign by state-sponsored media.

For his outspokenness and efforts to assist the local population, Zavarkin was labelled and his sanity questioned as falsehoods were spread about him. Despite his popular support, authorities fined him and removed him from his position as a people’s representative. In 2024, he was again targeted by the authorities and subjected to a forced psychological evaluation.

Rights groups say Russia’s political persecution is not limited to legal measures. It also takes other forms, where, for instance, over the past decade, journalists in Karelia who expressed opinions opposing the official state narrative were removed from their positions or faced legal prosecution. At the same time, respected university professors and scholars are pressured to leave their posts because their teachings challenged state ideology.

Indigenous cultural centres are forced to sever ties with foreign institutions, either through intimidation or, in the case of state-controlled centres, through changes in management. The measures, Human rights group working in Karelia say, are aimed at limiting foreign influence, which, as in previous cases, could interfere with the central state narrative.

Defamation campaigns have long been used by central authorities to remove influential individuals capable of challenging the Putin state.

Save for Zavarkin, there is another case of a Karelian Congressman, Anatolij Grigoriev, a prominent figure in the Karelian political opposition since the early 90s. For his stands, state media targeted him, misrepresenting him in an effort to undermine his public standing. As a result of the defamation campaign, combined with legal persecution, he was forced to withdraw from politics.

“ The persecutions are going beyond the Russian Federation's borders," said Jana, adding, “Russian authorities are increasingly innovative in their methods of suppressing dissent, making it ever more dangerous to stand for truth and justice. Sadly, the oppressive treatment faced by the native populations of the Russian Federation extends to the occupied Ukrainian territories, and evidence suggests that people there are experiencing even harsher repression”

Even as Moscow smoothens persecution tactics using the soft method of manipulating the press, influencing political stands and silencing educators, the European press has been reporting a well-oiled campaign of silencing critics through the KGB's infamous method of poisoning.

On August 19 widely circulating French publication Le Monde, reported that over the past year, three Russians living in exile are believed to have been poisoned, one in Munich, one in Prague and one in Tbilisi, Georgia. The paper quoted an investigation by The Insider, a Russian publication which is also in exile. It's considered to be a reliable source, and has cooperated with the British website Bellingcat on dozens of other poisoning cases, including that of opponent Alexei Navalny on August 20, 2020, Le Monde said.

Unlike Navalny, neither the culprits nor the poison used have been formally identified in the case of the three Russians in exile. But The Insider considers it necessary to disclose this information "to warn activists and journalists who have left Russia." These alleged poisonings allegedly show that "enemies of Russia" continue to be targeted, particularly on European soil, since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Unlike the other two women, Elena Kostyuchenko's case had never been raised publicly. The 36-year-old journalist, one of Novaya Gazeta's leading writers, was the last Russian reporter to continue working in Ukraine after the country was invaded. Before her paper was forced to censor her articles and then close down, she was able to report, from March 2022, on the crimes committed by the Russian army in the occupied Kherson region. 

Prof Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute, told the BBC in a 2020 interview during the Alexei Navalny poisoning issue that “poison has two characteristics: subtlety and theatricality. It’s so subtle that you can deny it or make it harder to prove. And it takes time to work, there’s all kinds of agony, and the poisoner can deny it with a sly wink, so everyone gets the hint.”

 Navalny was Russia’s best-known anti-corruption campaigner and opposition activist. His slick, hard-hitting videos on social media have drawn many millions of views and made him a thorn in the side of the Kremlin.

 A victim poisoned before a long flight can be stuck in the air long enough for the assassin to make an easy getaway. Navalny, 44, fell acutely ill on a flight from Tomsk in Siberia on 20 August- so ill that it had to be diverted to Omsk. Russian investigative reporter and Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya, shot dead in 2006, claimed to have been poisoned on a flight to the North Caucasus in 2004, when she felt sick and fainted, reported Le Monde.