The Circassian people's fight for justice and Russia's dark history

A Russian serviceman on the frontline in Ukraine. [AFP]

In a twist of historical irony, Vladimir Putin’s aggressive campaign in Ukraine has cast a renewed and intense global spotlight on Russia’s often suppressed past, particularly its legacy of imperial conquest, colonial aggression, and ethnic cleansing.

One part of this shadowy history now receiving increased scrutiny is the plight of the Circassian people. These are descendants of survivors of a brutal 19th-century campaign waged by Czarist Russia to eradicate them. The Circassians are now calling on the world to recognise these atrocities—mass killings, systematic cultural erasure, and forceful evictions—as a genocide.