Boris Babin, Doctor of Law, professor, and former Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, wrote about this on his Facebook page.

“Volodin’s remarks contain an extremely interesting nuance—one that is crucial for understanding modern Russian aggressive imperialism—hidden in the following phrases: ‘yet another demonstration of intolerance by Ukrainian authorities toward small nations,’ ‘Nationalism and the oppression of small nations could lead to a number of regions seceding from Ukraine,’ and ‘at the same time, it is difficult to call the 36% of Ukrainian citizens who consider Russian their native language a “small nation.”’ I have heard many times before in the speeches of Russian orators and diplomats—including at the now-well-known Forum on Minority Issues— claims about the oppression by “enemies of the Russian world” of some mysterious “small nations” that apparently reside exclusively in states that are victims of or targets for Russian aggression and expansion. “I used to attribute this to the speakers’ lack of preparation, since neither international law nor national legal systems actually recognize any such ‘small peoples,’” he wrote.

According to the expert, there are peoples—including those fighting for self-determination and indigenous peoples—as well as recognized minorities (ethnic, religious, linguistic, etc.). Sometimes, to avoid precise definitions, documents regarding ethnic groups also use vague terms such as “groups” and “communities.”

“For the effective protection of its specific rights, a people that does not constitute the majority of the population of a given territory may be considered a minority, while Russian domestic law traditionally limits the rights of indigenous peoples, applying them only to ‘indigenous small peoples.’ “However, international law, first, presumes the equality of rights for all peoples, regardless of their size, and, second, proclaims the right to self-determination within nation-states only for peoples, not for other ethnic groups,” Babin noted.

In his view, Russian “diplomats” and officials, when speaking of oppressed small nations, “actually want to see the right to self-determination where it does not exist—namely, among traditional national minorities.”

“At the same time, in this worldview—where there are ‘oppressed small nations’ outside the empire and ‘national happiness’ within it—Russians do not count the Russian-speaking population among the ‘small nations.’ After all, in their worldview, there is only one ‘great nation’—the one to which this population supposedly belongs and which, in the delusional dreams of the Vlastovs and Balbekovs, the chosen, loyal ‘small nations’ are meant to serve. “And the rest of the population, which does not have the good fortune to be a ‘great nation’ and has refused to become a ‘small nation,’ must obviously prepare for annihilation or assimilation,” he stated.

According to the expert, Volodin’s statement is “a reflection of imperial chauvinism and racial discrimination.”

“Well, it’s clear that in his own racial worldview, Mr. Volodin has left Mr. Hitler and his *Mein Kampf* far behind; because even the Nazis ‘accepted’ the existence of several ‘great,’ ‘racially pure’ nations. But for the modern Russian Federation, there is only one such nation,” Babin added.

As reported by Ukrinform, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin threatened Ukraine, saying that if “nationalism and the oppression of small nations” continued, a number of regions would secede from the country.

Volodin’s statement was published on the State Duma’s website; and came in response to the Ukrainian delegation disrupting the speech of Ruslan Balbek—an illegally elected State Duma deputy from annexed Crimea and a collaborator—at a UN forum on minority issues.