What happens in Tatarstan will determine the future fate of the Russian Federation and lead to the demise of the last major land empire.
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American political scientist, former special adviser to the US State Department on national problems of the Soviet Union and the Baltic countries, Paul Goble, stated this in an interview with the Kyiv online publication “Apostrophe”.
“I am convinced that we have been witnessing the demise of the last large land empire in the world for about 120 years,” the publication’s interlocutor said, noting that he predicts the emergence of six to twenty new states in Russia’s place, most of which “will be dominated by ethnic Russians, not minorities.”
“Do you think Chechnya will play a special role in these processes of disintegration, like Tatarstan?” asked Kyiv journalists.
“I think Tatarstan plays a much larger role in the disintegration of Russia than Chechnya ever did. Tatarstan is not only much larger, it is also geographically more important for Russia: if Moscow loses control of Tatarstan, it will also lose control of Siberia and the Far East. Because all transportation now goes through Tatarstan. Chechnya is marginal. This is a very small republic with a very small population that fought heroically against Russian aggression. But, ultimately, this is not what the fate of Russia depends on. And what happens in Tatarstan will determine the fate of the Russian Federation,” Goble hopes.