A growing movement among Russia’s captive nations will be holding its first forum in Washington next week. Representatives from over a dozen republics and regions are demanding sovereignty and independence from the failing Russian Federation. They are making their case in America with an event at the Hudson Institute think tank.

The consequences of Russia’s failing war in Ukraine and of Moscow’s increasing isolation from Europe and the rest of the democratic world are clear. They provide a unique opportunity for building new states to ensure the dissolution of Europe’s last empire. Activists representing a diverse assortment of nations from Chechnya and Tatarstan to Siberia, Buryatia, and Sakha in the Russian far east believe that conditions for imperial collapse are ripening. Moscow’s enormous military losses and the country’s accelerating economic decline are revealing the incompetence of Russia’s ruling elite. Moscow is now widely perceived as the exploiting colonial metropolis that has failed to provide either security or welfare for its subjects.