Russia's long persecuted ethnic minorities — Buryats, Chechens and Yakuts — have seized on the war in Ukraine to make a case for the independence of their own regions. They say the conflict has laid bare Russia's violent and imperial mentality, not just in Eastern Europe, but within its own borders.
Hmm not surprising considering Russia has been drafting ethnic minorities for their war instead of pulling from Moscow and St. Petersburg. As such, they’ve been taking a considerable number of losses for a war they didn’t even want, and of whom losses Putin sees as expendable.