This article examines the proliferation of decolonial rhetoric in the digital sphere in the articulation of ethnic minority rights in Russia following the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Based on an analysis of diaspora discourses, it identifies three clusters: ethno-political self-determination, which reframes Soviet-era minority nationalism in the language of decolonization; indigeneity-centered cultural discourse, which foregrounds ecological, epistemic, and linguistic struggles; and Islamic epistemic discourse, which advances religiously grounded alternatives to liberal-secular modernity. Although these clusters diverge in their political imaginaries and epistemic orientations, all engage – albeit in different ways – with the legacies of imperial and Soviet systems of minority governance, while operating within transnational networks shaped by exile and mediated through digital environments. By situating these discourses within a semi-peripheral positionality – as activist discourses navigate both Russian and Western imperial legacies – the article argues that contemporary decolonial rhetoric is neither monolithic nor inherently emancipatory. Rather, it can be used to challenge certain inherited hierarchies while leaving others intact or creating new ones.