An event took place in Prague, the practical significance of which is difficult to assess at the moment, but the grandiose idea behind it is already quite clear — the Summit of the European Political Community, in which the leaders of 44 large European countries participated and supported this initiative. The summit was attended not only by the leaders of countries that are already members of the EU, but also by the leaders of countries that are aspiring to join, such as Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as countries like Turkey, which have no illusions about joining, and countries like Azerbaijan and Armenia, which do not even declare such goals. It is noteworthy that the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia can now meet on this pan-European platform, but not on post-Soviet platforms such as the recent Samarkand Summit.
In general, the European political community includes the EU countries, the countries of the Western Balkans, Turkey, and the countries of the South Caucasus, and there are plans to include the countries of the southern Mediterranean in the future. Only two countries are demonstratively excluded — Putin’s Russia and Lukashenko’s Belarus, which have no place even in such a broad community, where they are willing to include leaders who do not have the reputation of being ideal democrats… In fact, Greater Europe is uniting against the spectre not of Communism anymore, but of Greater Russia, as Putin declared in his speech on the annexation of new parts of Ukraine. Therefore, no matter how much some pro-Kremlin figures try to appeal to the idea of Greater Europe on the Muslim field, presenting Russia as a part of it and one of the largest Muslim countries in Europe, from now on it can be confidently said that these attempts are futile. Russia could have been a part of Greater Europe within its internationally recognized borders until 2014, but there is no place for the so-called «Greater Russia» occupying parts of other internationally recognized states.
However, as we have seen, there is a place in Greater Europe for the countries that once emerged from «Greater Russia» — from Ukraine (with the Baltic countries already in NATO and the EU) to Moldova and the Caucasian countries, both Christian and Muslim Azerbaijan. And this means that in the future there may be a place in «Greater Europe» for the currently oppressed Muslim republics of the Volga region and the Caucasus when they gain their independence from the outcast Europe — «Greater Russia».
And this week, an important step in this direction was taken by a country that is playing an increasingly important role in Greater Europe — Ukraine. Not only with new successes on the battlefields, but also with the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of a resolution «On Supporting the Right to Self-Determination of the Peoples of the Russian Federation». In 2019, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine already adopted a resolution in defense of the rights of the oppressed indigenous peoples of Russia. Now a more decisive step has been taken — support not only for their rights in general, but specifically for the right to self-determination. This already serves as a basis for recognizing the future independence of states like Ichkeria, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Circassia, etc., especially since «Greater Russia» has completely untied Ukraine’s hands in this regard.
In short, the oppressed peoples of Russia are waiting for a Greater Europe where there will be a place for everyone — Christians and Muslims, liberals and conservatives, more secular and more religious countries. All that is needed for this is to get rid of «Greater Russia», and preferably to get rid of its existence altogether. By the way, the Russians themselves should be interested in this, because in this case, through their new republics, they will have a chance to be part of Greater Europe again, instead of remaining its outcasts.