Udmurt scholar Albert Razin ended his life in front of the Udmurt Republic’s State Council Building in Izhevsk, Russia, on Sept. 10, 2019, setting himself ablaze. His desperate act serves as a haunting emblem of Russia’s national policy under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reign. Today, Russification has reached unprecedented heights, eclipsing even the Soviet era in its scope and intensity. The marginalization of national cultures and languages is taking place with the active assistance of the Russian state. Putin was personally involved in the abolition of language instruction in the sch…