The European Parliament’s hemicycle in Strasbourg, France (file photo; not from the events described). Photo: Diliff, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The European Parliament voted 506 to 9, with 32 abstentions, on Feb. 29, 2024, for a resolution saying that Ukraine’s victory “may lead to genuine changes in the Russian Federation, in particular deimperialisation, decolonialisation and refederalisation.” That vote is the strongest official evidence behind a debate over Russia decolonization in Europe. A review of the primary records shows real institutional support for restructuring Russia, but no record of an EU plan to break up the Russian Federation.
This analysis checks each strand of evidence against official texts: parliamentary resolutions, a forum held inside the European Parliament, Russia’s legal response, and the EU’s stated policy. It keeps one distinction central. The European Union and the Council of Europe are separate organizations, and what one adopts does not bind the other.
The European Parliament’s resolution
The resolution, formally titled “The murder of Alexei Navalny and the need for EU action in support of political prisoners and oppressed civil society in Russia” (2024/2579(RSP)), was adopted on Feb. 29, 2024, about two weeks after Navalny died in a Russian Arctic prison. Several online summaries date it to March 14, 2024; the Parliament’s own records show Feb. 29.
According to the Parliament’s press release, the text calls the three changes “necessary conditions for establishing democracy in Russia.” The same resolution asks the European External Action Service to develop “a proactive, long-term strategic policy towards Russia” and to support Russian civil society and opposition figures in exile.
The wording goes further than calls for a withdrawal from Ukraine. The resolution does not define the three terms, however, and it does not call for any region to secede. Refederalisation could mean giving Russia’s republics real autonomy inside one state. The text itself does not settle which reading is intended.
A post-Russia forum inside the Parliament
On Jan. 31, 2023, the fifth Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum met in the European Parliament building in Brussels under the title “Imperial Russia: Conquest, Genocide and Colonisation. Prospects for Deimperialisation and Decolonisation.” Polish MEPs Anna Fotyga and Kosma Złotowski of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group co-hosted it, according to Polish Radio and EU Political Report. Meduza, which covered the event, reported that the ECR group paid for delegates’ travel and lodging.
The forum’s own website lists its goals as the “structural transformation of Russia” and approaches to “independent post-Putin nation states.” A political group hosting an event is not an act of the Parliament itself, and no plenary vote endorsed the forum’s aims.
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office declared the forum an “undesirable organization” on March 17, 2023, OVD-Info reported. The office said the forum threatened Russia’s constitutional order and security because it gave a platform to “representatives of ethno-separatist movements.”
The Council of Europe’s PACE resolution
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted Resolution 2540 on April 17, 2024. It was a resolution, not a declaration. Paragraph 28 states that “decolonisation of the Russian Federation is a necessary condition for the establishment of democracy in the Russian Federation,” and says it does so “to reinforce” the European Parliament’s February resolution. The rapporteur was Lithuanian member Emanuelis Žingeris.
PACE belongs to the 46-member Council of Europe, a human rights body based in Strasbourg that expelled Russia in March 2022. It is not an EU institution, and its resolutions do not set EU policy.
National parliaments and the forum
The forum held a press conference in Lithuania’s Seimas in Vilnius on June 16, 2024, during its 11th meeting, according to the forum and a BNS press notice. The notice listed MEP Rasa Juknevičienė among participants and described the forum’s aim as discussing the “decolonization of Russia-Muscovy.”
The other national claims in the outline did not hold up as stated. The forum’s fourth meeting, held Dec. 8–10, 2022, took place in a hotel in Helsingborg, Sweden, not in the Riksdag, and this review found no record of Swedish lawmakers meeting the group. Estonian participants appear on forum programs, including Narva’s House of Ingria and the URALIC Centre, but no record was found of Riigikogu members taking part.
What official EU policy says
The Parliament’s Russia fact sheet lists the principles guiding the EU’s approach since 2022. They include isolating Russia internationally, imposing sanctions “to prevent it from waging war,” holding the Russian state accountable for war crimes, and supporting “civil society, human rights defenders and independent media” inside and outside Russia. Parliament’s September 2021 recommendation called for a strategy toward “a free, prosperous, peaceful and democratic Russia.”
None of these documents calls for Russia’s republics to become independent states. On the forum, the Kremlin’s position on the record is the prosecutors’ designation: it treats such activity as a threat to Russia’s territorial and constitutional order.
Timeline
- May–July 2022 · First forums in Warsaw and Prague
- Dec. 8–10, 2022 · Fourth forum, Helsingborg hotel, Sweden
- Jan. 31, 2023 · Fifth forum inside the European Parliament, hosted by ECR MEPs
- March 17, 2023 · Russia declares the forum “undesirable”
- Feb. 29, 2024 · European Parliament resolution, 506–9–32
- April 17, 2024 · PACE Resolution 2540
- June 16, 2024 · Forum press conference in Lithuania’s Seimas
Source: European Parliament, PACE, OVD-Info, Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum, Jamestown Foundation; graphic: The Boston Report
How strong is the evidence?
| Claim | Assessment | Key source |
|---|---|---|
| European Parliament linked democracy in Russia to decolonisation and refederalisation | Strong | EP resolution, Feb. 29, 2024 |
| A Council of Europe body called decolonisation a necessary condition | Strong (not an EU body) | PACE Res. 2540 |
| An EP venue hosted a forum discussing independent post-Russia states | Documented (group-hosted) | Polish Radio; Meduza |
| National parliaments gave the forum a platform | Partly: Lithuania yes; Sweden, Estonia not found | BNS; forum records |
| The EU has an official plan to dissolve Russia | Not established | EP Russia fact sheet |
Conclusion
The record supports a narrower claim than the one often made online. A large European Parliament majority endorsed decolonialisation and refederalisation as conditions for democracy in Russia, and PACE adopted similar language two months later. Individual lawmakers, mainly from Poland and the Baltic states, have given a separatist-leaning forum access to parliamentary buildings. But resolutions of the Parliament are not binding EU policy, and nothing found in the EU’s official texts calls for dissolving the Russian Federation.
For context on the diplomacy now under way, see our coverage of the Ukraine-Russia talks set for Abu Dhabi, NATO’s deep-strike planning against Russia, the daily war in Ukraine tracker and our geopolitics desk.
What to watch
- Whether any EU Council conclusion or Commission strategy adopts the “refederalisation” language. So far it appears only in Parliament and PACE texts.
- Funding: who pays for forum events, beyond the ECR group’s 2023 Brussels meeting reported by Meduza.
- Ties between Baltic and Polish officials and the forum, including any government, rather than party, involvement.
- Whether a European Parliament elected in 2024 repeats the 2024 wording in new Russia resolutions.
- Further Russian legal action against forum participants under its “undesirable organization” law.
Sources
- European Parliament press release: MEPs: EU must actively support Russia’s democratic opposition (Feb. 29, 2024)
- European Parliament, texts adopted P9_TA(2024)0118
- PACE Resolution 2540 (2024), adopted text
- European Parliament fact sheet: Russia
- Polish Radio: Polish MEPs host debate on Russian conquest and colonisation
- OVD-Info: Prosecutor General declares the forum “undesirable” (in Russian)
- BNS press notice: 11th Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum, Vilnius (in Lithuanian)
Additional sources
- Meduza: report from the forum at the European Parliament (in Russian)
- EU Political Report: ECR to host conference on Russia
- Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum: goals and events
- Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum: documents (Helsingborg, Brussels)
- Jamestown Foundation: a “post-Russia” forum is born
- European Parliament fact sheet: Russia (PDF)
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