On her YouTube channel, Maria Vyushkova describes herself as a researcher by profession, Buryat by ethnic background and anti-war and decolonial activist by the sphere of social engagement.In the 3 years since Russias major intrusion of Ukraine, Vyushkova, who holds a Ph.D.
in chemistry, has emerged as the lead expert on the involvement of Russias Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities in the war.While Indigenous activists long sounded the alarm about the disproportionate mobilization of minorities for the war, Vyushkova was the very first to back these claims up with difficult information and clarified the true scale of ethnic disparities in the confirmed Russian-side casualties.The Moscow Times spoke to Vyushkova about utilizing clinical knowledge in advocacy, the misconception of Buryats in Bucha and the apparently impossible task of counting Indigenous casualties.This interview has actually been edited for length and clarity.MT: When did you first apply your scientific understanding to activist work?MV: Way before the invasion of Ukraine.When [Russian President Vladimir] Putin ordered to install cameras at ballot stations in 2012, [pro-democracy] activists decided to benefit from it.
They downloaded the videos to count how many people actually voted in the election and look for possible irregularities in the vote-counting procedure.
I was among the volunteers doing thisand saw a great deal of dreadful things occur on those recordings.MT: You joined the Free Buryatia Foundation with the start of the major invasionYes, I was among its co-founders.
MT: and there your ability to merge science with activism flourished.It turned out that nobody else in the structure had any experience working with dataSo I was reviewing obituaries [of soldiers], keeping the count of the deceased, trying to comprehend why many of them were from Buryatia, and so on.Rumors that it was the Buryats who had actually killed civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha during its profession by Russia played a crucial role in forming my work.I was educated at a highly appreciated scientific school and taught that a real scientist should question whatever.
So I began examining these rumors because nobody else questioned them and I wished to understand what was behind them, how all of it in fact happened.I looked at the lists of the departed soldiers put together by Mediazona volunteers to see which ones passed away in the town of Bucha in March 2022.
It ended up that it was mostly paratroopers from Pskov [a Russian area neighboring Estonia, Latvia and Belarus] who had been dying there throughout the entire month, which didnt quite align with the picture presented by the media.
So I thought: Okay, something doesnt build up here.As I continued collecting evidence, comparing sources and cross-referencing prisoner testaments, I realized that these were, certainly, the paratroopers of the 76th Pskov Airborne Division a conclusion likewise reached by the Conflict Intelligence Team and supported by the monitoring video footage and other materials published by Ukraine.MT: But the misconception about Buryats in Bucha resides on, doesnt it?Yes, it spread out widely and ended up being very popular not simply in Russia, but also in Ukraine and the West.
Do you keep in mind the Popes controversial statement?Whenever media outlets discuss Russian war criminal activities, there is an excessive focus on representatives of Asian ethnic groups.
Nobody wishes to handle this uncomfortable subject people are afraid that implicating Ukrainians [of racism] may be perceived as morally inappropriate.
But this issue needs to be addressed.Some evidencefrom prisonerssignals that ethnic Buryat POWs in Ukraine are dealt with even worse than Russian ones.
This is an unpleasant pattern.
It means we can no longer motivate Buryat soldiers to surrender due to the fact that no one knows what might happen to them.Im also afraid that Russian propaganda might abuse this trend to encourage individuals in Buryatia and other Asian republics to sign up with the war to seek vengeance for their relatives.MT: Could you explain the process of gathering details on the ethnic structure of casualties on the Russian side in the war in Ukraine?In the Free Buryatia Foundation, we concentrated on three geographical areas where Buryats live: the republic of Buryatia, the Irkutsk region and the Aginsky district of the Zabaykalsky region.We collected obituaries from social media, posts made by loved ones, info sent to us in personal messages and reports on regional television.MT: Many Indigenous people adopted Russian first and last names as an outcome of Moscows required russification and Christianization policies over the centuries.
So how exactly do you analyze somebodies ethnicity?I and my fellow volunteers dont just take a look at the name and the picture.
We examine what is composed in the obituary, where the individual was from, what language the comments remain in, whether those remarks are from loved ones, therefore on.Ethnicity is a very complicated matter and analyzing it is not simple.
It is difficult to automate that process.In a research study released in the Journal of Computational Social Science, Alexey Bessudnov from the University of Exeter used AI to look for ethnic names in the lists compiled by Mediazona.
However honestly, I disagree with his conclusions.MT: You have actually just recently switched your concentrate on counting losses amongst the small-numbered Indigenous communities of Siberia and the North.
What prompted you to do that?No one speak about them, however when you rank ethnic groups by the variety of deaths per capita, Chukchis, Udeges, Eskimos and Nenets are far ahead of both the Buryats and Tyvans, for example.
Small-numbered Indigenous communities are overrepresented in all lists, consisting of those of soldiers recruited from prisons more than likely, excessive imprisonment among these individuals likewise plays a role.For circumstances, for the Nenets [whose overall population in Russia is around 50,000] per capita losses are roughly the like those of the Tyvans [who number at 295,000] Another example: the village of Elabuga in the Khabarovsk area.
Eighty Indigenous households are living there and 15 guys from those households were set in motion, while another 10 supposedly signed agreements as volunteers.
These are horrifying numbers.These communities need males to sustain their conventional way of living, which indicates they might lose their cultural identity altogether as an outcome of this war.
This is essentially the extermination of whole nations its terrifying.MT: You likewise monitor basic trends in Russias war losses; could you inform us what the latest figures expose about the scenario on the front line?I wont be the very first to state this, but 2024 was the bloodiest year of this war.
The rate at which deaths are increasing has actually grown dramatically.The 2nd notable trend is the shift in losses towards the west [of Russia] That is, Buryatia is no longer among the leading areas by casualty numbers.
Rather, the leading areBashkortostan and Tatarstan, along with the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions.The scenario with Bashkortostan and Tatarstan is devastating.
The variety of casualties from there continues to rise without any end in sight.
The two republics are large areas population-wise specifically compared to Buryatia however they still rank around 20th in deaths per capita out of 83 areas plus several occupied areas.
This indicates their per-capita losses are already significantly above the national average.
They have actually even exceeded the republics of Sakha (Yakutia) and Kalmykia.This surge in losses started after mobilization When the assault on Avdiivka began in October 2023, I saw a sharp increase in casualties from Bashkortostan.
At the time, I anticipated that Bashkortostan would take the lead in losses which prediction came true.Moscow region is likewise now in 4th place by losses something we havent seen before.
There are many military units in the region, they havent been heavily involved in active combat till a certain point in the war.
It appears [the authorities] intentionally attempted to prevent losses [among soldiers] from Moscow and areas around it, today they are likewise being sent to the grinder.MT: What do you feel when processing all these lists and analytical data?Its really hard to take a look at all of this.
I seem like I was familiar with at least 500 dead guys personally while by hand processing all the information.Its terrifying.Especially when it pertains to small-numbered Indigenous communities who are 100% victims of this circumstance due to the fact that they are greatly depending on the government and typically have no access to competent legal assistance.None of them have actually ever tried to challenge [the receipt of military] mobilization [summons] in court although there are grounds for it just because they cant get access to a skilled attorney who is likewise brave enough to take on such a case.
Thats the very first issue.The 2nd issue is their devastating dependence on the state due to the fact that their traditional lifestyle has actually essentially been criminalized.
Russian environmental protection laws not only fail to secure nature however they are likewise formed to turn these people into criminals.Its frightening to witness the death of males from these neighborhoods due to the fact that you recognize that in one or two generations, entire cultures might easily disappear and nobody knows or cares about that.