Reportedly, the Kremlin is mulling an idea to relocate 500,000–1,000,000 people from the southern portions of the Russian Federation to the Far East and Siberia. This prospect has sparked fears among some non-Russians. Specifically, certain regional minorities, including Crimean Tatars from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula, fear President Vladimir Putin may use this program to carry out a “hybrid” deportation of these groups in order to punish those who have resisted his power as well as to tighten his control over their regions.
Aslambek Paskachev, the head of the Putin’s Commission on Ethnic Relations, told the newspaper Izvestia, on September 21, that …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation