The
Republic of Ingria, also known as Ingermanland, is another region which great
care will need to be taken with as it asserts its sovereignty. The region is
currently Russia’s doorway to the Baltic Sea and it also contains a
historically very important city for Russian history, St Petersburg.
Too
long we have seen NATO forces try and support faux independence movements, in a
cynical bid to force terrible oligarchs on these countries that then orient
completely to the west. This western EU orientation takes the form of both
their security and their trade arrangements. Again it will be important that
these independence movements are truly for independence of these regions and
good relations are kept between both east and west by these states.
It
is of course assumed that with St Petersburg as the major city, in this new
nation, a strong focus on good relations with Russia will continue. It will be
important to have this new nation exist as a truly independent polity however,
as in the wake of the European Union’s collapse it will be necessary to prevent
any future conflict between the old foes of Sweden and Russia. An independent
Ingria will act as a perfect buffer state between the two.
Ingria
will be a multiethnic state as Russians make the majority of the population
now. The indigenous Izhorians and Voles have a much reduced population, since
the waves of colonisation have entered the area. There are also some Ingrian
Finns who remain in this area. One way that this multi ethnic nation could be infused,
with a new sense of shared identity, would be to reintroduce the Izhorian
language as the national language. Within a generation or two Russian could be
replaced by Izhorian, spoken by all Ingrians regardless of their ethnic
background.
Such
a restoration of rare languages has worked before, most notably in the case of
Greek and Hebrew. Again this should not be interpreted as some attempt to de-Russify
the region but simply as a way to create a deeper union in the nation. Maintaining
balanced relations between Sweden and Russia will be this states most important
role, to prevent the outbreak of any conflict.
The
existence of this nation should also lay an end to the lie that the only forces
seeking the devolution of power in Europe are part of some Russian plot, trying
to weaken and dominate the continent. Russia itself will not be immune to the
same forces that are currently pushing both sides of the Atlantic towards a
future of smaller nation states. Again the current regime in Moscow should not
see this as a threat, as long as no forces from the West try and use these
moves to attempt regime change. As long as the Moscow government is allowed to
play a role in the peaceful secession of these regions, and maintain great post
secession ties with the new nations, it should be fine.
We
saw a similar process during the break down of the Soviet Union and the
creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States in its aftermath. A role in
a wider CIS, and a shared part in the one belt one road scheme, should seek to
calm any concerns Moscow may have. This will allow the greatest chance of
peaceful secessions across the region and the current regime in Moscow being
welcomed as a partner member in this new world structure, instead of being
demonised as an enemy.
If
Putin is smart he will push for these changes within his own borders himself.
This will give him a much greater moral stand point from which to help champion
a similar break up of the United States, into smaller countries. Having both
the super states broken into smaller, safer, states will then ease the risk of
them having conflict with each other and also remove the current nuclear threat
which is building.
All
of the territory that will form Ingria will come from former parts of Russia.
The new Ingrian nation will be made up of the Slantsevsky, Luzhsky, Gatchinsky,
Kingiseppsky, Kirovsky, Lomonosovsky, Tosnensky, Volosovsky and Vsevolozhsky
Districts, currently a part of Leningrad Oblast in Russia. Added to this will
be the Saint Petersburg metropolis, also currently a part of Russia. It is
likely St Petersburg will be a highly autonomous almost city-state, as it is
currently in the Russian Federation. However it will be in national union with
the capital of Ingria, in Kirjasalo, instead of Moscow.
The
Flag of Ingria is yet another in the Nordic cross family. It gets its colours
from the colours of the Ingrian coat of arms, which the region acquired during
the period of its Swedish occupation. Ingrian Finn nationalists adopted the
flag during the Bolshevik Revolution. In 1919 they declared an independent
Republic of North Ingria, in the Vsevolozhsky District, and this flag was the
official flag of that nation. Later in 1920 the region was reabsorbed by
neighbouring Russia. The modern nationalist movement once again uses this flag
to represent all the Ingrian territory.
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