Russian official Vladyslav Zhyvitsa announced the creation of a movement for the independence of the Smolensk Oblast, a region of Russia on the border with Belarus.
Zhyvitsa is currently in Warsaw. The official held a press conference with Yan Rudyk, a delegate of the Coordination Council of Belarus.
“The Principality of Smolensk did well without Moscow,” Zhyvitsa said. The speakers announced the creation in Warsaw of a political organization of supporters of the independence of the Smolensk Oblast in alliance with the future Belarus.
It is about “the reproduction of independent Smolensk statehood in a close union with future free Belarus and other countries whose territories were previously part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,” Zhyvytsia and Rudyk said.
The organization will create a combat unit of supporters of the independence of the Smolensk Republic as part of the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment, which is fighting for Ukraine. The Russian official said this will be the first step towards the region’s independence.
The movement’s successes for the Smolensk Oblast’s independence will be a good example for other republics enslaved by Russia, Zhyvitsa is convinced. These are, in particular, Povolzhye, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan.
Zhyvitsa became the only deputy of the regional parliament in Russia who openly advocated the region’s independence. The official was harassed for allegedly being an “agent of Polish influence” in the Russian Federation. Currently, the Federal Security Service of Russia plans to open a criminal case against the man.
Earlier, it was reported that Japan announced its intention to create a center to support the enslaved nations of the Russian Federation. The decision was made during the VII Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum, which took place on August 1-2 in Tokyo.
Cover: RFE/RL