Russian irredentism (Russian:русский ирредентизм) refers to territorial claims made by theRussian Federation to regions that were historically part of theRussian Empire and theSoviet Union, whichRussian nationalists regard as part of the "Russian world". It seeks to create aGreater Russia by politically incorporating ethnicRussians andRussian speakers living in territories bordering Russia. This ideology has been significantly defined by theregime of Vladimir Putin, who has governed the country since 1999. It is linked toRussian neo-imperialism.
Russian troopscurrently occupy parts of three neighbouring countries:southern and easternUkraine,Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and theTransnistria region of Moldova. Since it began in 2014, theRusso-Ukrainian War has been described by much of the international community as being a culmination of Russia's irredentist policies towards Ukraine. Examples of these irredentist policies being implemented in this conflict include theRussian annexation of Crimea in 2014[1] and the ongoingRussian invasion of Ukraine, which saw theRussian annexation of southeastern Ukraine in 2022.
Specifically looking at the viewpoints of post-Soviet Russian leaderVladimir Putin, Erdi Ozturk, a professor atLondon Metropolitan University, has commented that irredentist ideology relies upon a "distinction between civilizations by synthesizing nationalism with nostalgic visions of history, memory, and religion."[2]
From roughly the 16th century to the 20th century, theRussian Empire followed anexpansionist policy.[n 1] Few of these actions had irredentist justifications, though the conquest of parts of the Ottoman Empire in the Caucasus in 1877 to bringArmenian Christians under the protection of the Tsar may represent one example.[3] Russia has also had an enduring interest inConstantinople (Istanbul), which was envisioned as the centre of Russian power.[4]
After thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was thought that theRussian Federation had given up on plans of territorial expansion or kin-state nationalism, despite some 25 million ethnic Russians living in neighboring countries outside Russia.[5]Stephen M. Saideman andR. William Ayres assert that Russia followed a non-irredentist policy in the 1990s despite some justifications for irredentist policies—one factor disfavoring irredentism was a focus by the ruling interest in consolidating power and the economy within the territory of Russia.[6] Furthermore, a stable policy of irredentism popular with the electorate was not found, and politicians proposing such ideas did not fare well electorally.[7] Russian nationalist politicians tended to focus on internal threats (i.e. "outsiders") rather than on the interests of Russians outside the federation.[8]
"Russia's border doesn't end anywhere".
It has been proposed that theannexation of Crimea in 2014 proves Russia remains an expansionist state.[10][11][12][13]Vladimir Putin'sspeech on the Crimea annexation was described by analystVladimir Socor as a "manifesto of Greater-Russia irredentism".[14] Putin said that the dissolution of the Soviet Union had "robbed" Russia of territories and made Russians "the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders", calling this an "outrageous historical injustice".[15] After the annexation, theTransnistrian authorities requested Russiaannex Transnistria.[16][17][18]
Following the Crimea annexation,armed Russian-backed separatists seized towns in the easternDonbas region of Ukraine, sparking theDonbas War. They declared their captured territory to be theDonetsk andLuhansk "people's republics". During this unrest, Putin began referring to "Novorossiya" (New Russia), a former Russian imperial territory that covered much of southern Ukraine.[19] Russian-backed forces then announced plans for anew Novorossiya, to incorporate all of eastern and southern Ukraine.[20][21]
A 2015 survey by thePew Research Center found that "61 percent of Russians believe parts of neighboring countries really belong to Russia".[22]
In his 2021 essay "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", Putin referred to Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians as "one people" making up atriune Russian nation. He maintained that large parts of Ukraine are historical Russian lands and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians".[23][24]
On 21 February 2022,the Kremlin recognized the Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine as independent states—the Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics"—as well as their irredentist claims to the wider Donbas region of Ukraine. The following day, Russia announced that it was sending troops into these territories.[25][26]
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched afull invasion of Ukraine.[27] In announcing the invasion, Putin repeatedly denied Ukraine'sright to exist, calling the country "an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space", and claiming that it was created by Russia.[28] It has been referred to as an irredentist war, going against the norm since World War II that sees territorialconquest as unacceptable.[29] Parallels were made between Putin's irredentism during the Ukrainian War andSlobodan Milosevic'sirredentism during theBosnian War.[30]
On 1 March 2022, images emerged in the press showing Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in front of a map which appeared to show invasion plans for Moldova where Russia already has soldiers in the breakaway region of Transnistria.[31][32]South Ossetian PresidentAnatoly Bibilov announced his intention to begin the process ofannexation by the Russian Federation.[33]
Four months into the invasion of Ukraine, Putin compared himself to Russian emperorPeter the Great. He claimed thatTsar Peter hadreturned "Russian land" to the empire, adding "it is now also our responsibility to return (Russian) land". Peter Dickinson of theAtlantic Council sees these comments as proof that Putin "is waging an old-fashioned imperial war of conquest".[34]
On 8 June 2022, a draft bill was submitted to Russia'sState Duma by a member of the rulingUnited Russia party proposing to repeal the Decree of theState Council of the Soviet Union "On the Recognition of the Independence of the Republic of Lithuania".[35][36][37] On 6 July, the speaker of the State Duma,Vyacheslav Volodin, threatened to "claim back"Alaska if the US froze or seized Russian assets.[38] Previously, another member of the State Duma,Oleg Matveychev, had demanded in response to sanctions that the US return Alaska, in addition toFort Ross, California (which was historically a Russian colony). Matveychev also demanded the recognition ofAntarctica as part of Russia, which in total would almost double Russia's territory.[39]
In September 2022,referendums on joining Russia were held in four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine: the Donetsk People's Republic, the Luhansk People's Republic,Zaporizhzhia region andKherson region. The Russian occupation authorities announced that all regions had overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining Russia and that there had been a high turnout despite the ongoing war and depopulation. It was widely dismissed as asham referendum by Ukraine and many other countries.[40][41] On 30 September, Putin announced in a speech[42] that Russia hadannexed the four regions.[43] The annexations were declared illegal by the UN. On 12 October 2022, theUnited Nations General Assembly passedResolution ES-11/4 advocating forterritorial integrity of Ukraine, with 143 nations voting in favor, 5 against and 35 abstaining. It condemned the "illegal so-called referendums" and the "attempted illegal annexation" and demanded that Russia immediately reverse its decisions and withdraw its forces from Ukraine.[44]
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of theSecurity Council of Russia and former Russian president, said that Ukraine should not exist in any form and that Russia will continue to wage war against any independent Ukrainian state.[45] He commented that Putin outlined "why Ukraine did not exist, does not exist, and will not exist".[46] In a March 2024 speech, Medvedev described Ukraine as part of Russia,[47] and spoke in front of a large map showing Russia in control of most of the country, with western Ukrainepartitioned between other countries, and Ukraine confined to arump state consisting of the city ofKyiv and theKyiv Oblast.[48]
In June 2025, Putin declared that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people" and therefore, "all of Ukraine is ours". He added "There is an old rule: Where a Russian soldier sets foot, that is ours". An audience of Russian politicians and business figures responded with applause.[49]
The share of the European population by districts and cities of regional and republican subordination Kazakhstan in 2016 > 70٪ 60.0 – 69.9 % 50.0 - 59.9 % 40.0 - 49.9 % 30.0 - 39.9 % 20.0 - 29.9 % 10.0 - 19.9 % 0.0 - 9.9 % |
About 300,000 to 500,000 km2. Russia wants to occupy the Northern Kazakhstan, because claims it as a "native Russian land" for the 50% of the population. Putin say Kazakhstan was never a real country.[50]
Some Russian nationalists seek to annex parts of the "near abroad", such as theBaltic states.[51] Governor of theRussian occupation ofZaporizhzhia OblastYevgeny Balitsky has described how "all of the Baltics" were "all our lands, andour people live there," calling to "correct this...through the might of Russian weapons" and "get our people back, the former subjects of theRussian Empire".[52] Others also some fear potential escalation due to Russian irredentist aspirations inNorthern Kazakhstan.[53]
Looking at the Russian efforts as a whole, the news networkAl Jazeera has quotedUniversity of San Francisco scholar Stephen Zunes as remarking, "The level of physical devastation and casualties thus far over a relatively short period is perhaps the [worst] in recent decades which, combined with the irredentist aims of the conquest, makes Russia's war on Ukraine particularly reprehensible in the eyes of the international community."[2]
U.S. news publicationThe Washington Post has stated that the Russian government could start a chain reaction of irredentist mass violence, which then "could break theinternational order".[54]
The similarities between Russian and Serbian irredentism are astonishing. Back in the 1990s, Serbian nationalists parroted the claim that Bosnia historically belonged to Serbia, that we Bosniak Muslims were in fact Christian Serbs who were forcefully converted to Islam under the Ottomans, and that Bosnia—as an independent and sovereign country—would not survive without Serbian tutelage. So closely are Bosniak Muslims able to identify with Ukrainians that monetary donations have been collected and prayers held at Bosnian mosques for Ukraine's defense.
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