Paul Goble
Staunton, March 27 – Vadim Shteppa, one of the chief ideologists of the Free Karelia movement who writes frequently on regionalism and nationalism in Russia, says that regionalist movements are emerging across the Russian Federation drawing on the model of regionalism in Europe to oppose the increasingly unitary nature of the Russian state.
Regionalism in Russia, he told the Finnish journal, "Karjalan Kuvlehti” earlier this month, seeks federalism within the country as a means to promoting rights and freedom. It thus stands between nationalist groups who seek independence and Moscow which has deprived the regions of their rights under the constitution.
Indeed, what he and his fellow regionalists are doing in Russia, Shteppa continued, resembles the actions and growing important of "regional self-administration in Europe,” where this is "not so much ‘an opposition’ but rather ...
