The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the Forum of Free States of Post-Russia as a “terrorist organization”, considering it “structural divisions” of 172 organizations. All these organizations are now banned in Russia. The press service of the Prosecutor General's Office writes about this.
According to the department, with which the court agreed, the Forum consists of 172 “units organized along national and regional lines.” The Prosecutor General's Office cites only five of them: the Baltic Republican Party, the Ingria movement , the Congress of the Peoples of the North Caucasus, the Free Yakutia Foundation, and the Far Eastern Confederation. At least three organizations from this list were previously also recognized as one of the 55 “structural units” included in the register of “extremist” “Anti-Russian separatist movement”.
The interaction of the Forum with “structural units,” the Prosecutor General’s Office assures, consists of “information support through the promotion of anti-Russian ideas about the illegal secession of territories from our country.”
“The organization is led by so-called leaders of national separatist movements who have fled abroad. They see their task as dividing the Russian Federation into separate states subject to the influence of unfriendly countries,” the department asserts. It calls calls for participation in the war on the side of Ukraine, committing terrorist attacks and sabotage, and promoting “terrorist activities” as methods of achieving the goals of the Forum.
The Prosecutor General’s Office’s claim to recognize the Forum as “terrorist” became known at the end of October. There was no mention of any “structural divisions” then. Probably, the “Forum of Free States of Post-Russia” means an association better known as the “Forum of Free Peoples of Post-Russia.” It was the organization with the second name that the Prosecutor General’s Office previously recognized as “undesirable.”
The “Forum of Free Peoples of Post-Russia,” which OVD-Info is aware of, is a discussion platform for representatives of the Russian opposition and foreign specialists. Among its founders is the Tatar politician Rafis Kashapov. Among the main goals of the organization are the decentralization and decolonization of Russia. At the Forum this spring, participants decided that some of Russia's current constituent entities should gain independence in the future, and discussed how the United States, China, and other countries would respond to these future "Post-Russian states."
There is no complete list of “structural units” recognized by the court as “terrorist” yet. Judging by the short list of organizations already listed by the Prosecutor General's Office, it can be assumed that the decision will affect a large number of decolonial and regionalist initiatives.
- After the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian authorities are actively using legislation on “terrorist organizations” to put pressure on anti-war and anti-state initiatives, as well as Ukrainian military formations. Thus, the RDK and the Legion “Freedom of Russia” and the “Vanguard of People's Will” , an unknown formation with which the security forces associate the defendants in the “Tyumen case,” are recognized as “terrorist organizations” fighting in Ukraine. Previously, the Columbine Movement was recognized as a “terrorist organization,” although it does not exist as a single “organization.”
- The probably non-existent organization “Anti-Russian Separatist Movement” was recognized as “extremist” at the beginning of the summer. Later it became known that the Prosecutor General’s Office considered more than 50 organizations to be “structural divisions” of the “movement” - from small decolonial movements to the large Free Russia Foundation.