At first
glance — just a casual interview.
But what was said out loud turned into a national scandal.
Sergey Ponomarenko, First Deputy Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, stated in a public podcast:
"Siberia is a melting pot.
The indigenous people here are the Kachin Tatars and the Kyrgyz, who were once
driven out. Everyone else — we're all either newcomers or descendants of
newcomers."
It was said
on a podcast hosted by the "Ambassador of Siberia" VK group.
And it might have passed as "philosophical musing" — if not for what came next.
🧱 Why are these words dangerous? Lawmakers
explain
The response
from Moscow was swift.
Mikhail Matveev, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma's Committee on Regional Policy,
responded:
"We live in a tense time.
Drawing analogies between present-day foreign nations and 'ancestral roots' on
Russian territory provokes political tension — especially when such statements
come from people with no expertise in ethnogenesis."
Translation:
any talk about Kyrgyz being "native" to Siberia — while there's a modern
country called Kyrgyzstan — can be seen as a political message. Dangerous both abroad and at home.
💥 Human Rights Council: not just foolish —
dangerous
Next came a
reaction from Kirill Kabanov, a member of the
Presidential Human Rights Council. His tone was direct and severe:
"When a blogger says
something like this — that's one thing. But when an official says it — it's a
catastrophe. These are harmful fabrications rooted in 'Golden Horde ideology'."
⚠️ The implication?
Words like this can be interpreted as challenging
Russia's historical sovereignty over Siberia.
That's not cultural reflection. That's a political
weapon.
📛 There's a precedent — and it ended badly
Summer 2025
showed exactly what happens when officials cross the line.
In
Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (Yugra), local MP Khalid
Tagi-zade publicly stated:
"Yugra is historically the
homeland of Uzbeks. The region was once ruled by Khan Kuchum, from the Uzbek
Shaybanid dynasty. Maybe migrants are just coming back to their roots."
What
happened next?
- 📩 Complaints filed with the Prosecutor General
- 🚫
Stripped of committee leadership
- 💸
Salary cut
- ⛔
Fully resigned from parliament in July 2025
All of that — over a single "historical theory" said aloud.
🧠 Why these remarks are never innocent
It's naïve
to think such statements are harmless.
Any public
commentary on history, ethnicity, and territory
— especially in regions like Siberia — is a geopolitical red line.
No "what
if," no "maybe," no "just wondering."
Siberia is Russia. Period.
Every phrase
like "this might be their homeland" gives rhetorical ammo to those who seek to
rewrite maps and displace native populations.
🧷 Conclusion
In peaceful
times, this might've been brushed off as academic nonsense.
But today, when Russia is under information attack
and national identity is constantly targeted,
every careless statement like this becomes a blow against the state.
And if an
official doesn't understand that — he shouldn't be in office.
And if he does understand — that's far worse.
❗ We're not
drawing conclusions. We're not historians.
We're simply
reporting what was said — and what happened next.
But let's be clear:
Russia's
land is not open for debate.
And we stand with our country. Always.
