Window On Eurasia: National Self-Determination And Integrity Of States Need Not Be In Conflict, Tatar Historian Says
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posted by eagle on April, 2011 as Imperialism
Window on Eurasia: National Self-Determination and Integrity of States Need Not Be in Conflict, Tatar Historian SaysPaul Goble
Staunton, April 5 – The right of nations to self-determination and the principle of the territorial integrity of states need not be contradictory,a leading Tatar historian says, but if this right is ignored by untrammeled majoritarian democracy or if states try to suppress it by force, many invoking this right will decide that they have no alternative but to seek independence.
In an essay posted on the Tatar-Tribun.ru portal this week, Rafael Khakimov, director of the Kazan Institute of History and at one time a political advisor to former Tatarstan President Mintimir Shaimiyev, argues that states with ethnic minorities must recognize this reality and its risks (tatar-tribun.ru/tribuna/nacionalnye-konflikty-i-mezhdunarodnoe-pravo.html#more-2316).
But even though Khakimov focuses on various situations elsewhere and says that "Tatarstan never raised the question about leaving Russia” but rather worked with Moscow ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: Russia’s Ainu Community Makes Its Existence Known
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Window on Eurasia: Russia’s Ainu Community Makes Its Existence KnownPaul Goble
Staunton, April 10 – In addition to the Siberians, another indigenous nationality has surfaced in the Russian Federation east of the Urals in the 2010 census – the Ainu – one whose small number – approximately 100 -- bely the potential political and geopolitical significance of an ethnic community most of whose members are in Japan.
On the one hand, the recent earthquake and tsunami have focused attention on Japan, increasing the importance of all things that connect that country with others, including Russia. And on the other, because the Ainu live among other places in the Kurile Islands, the Ainu of Russia are likely to come to play a role in that dispute between Moscow and Tokyo.
Indeed, Russian scholars say, the very name Kurile derives from the Ainu word "Kuru” which simply means "people,” an origin that ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: Russia’s Colonial Rule Of The North Caucasus Approaching Its End, Israeli Analyst Says
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Window on Eurasia: Russia’s Colonial Rule of the North Caucasus Approaching Its End, Israeli Analyst SaysPaul Goble
Staunton, March 28 – Russia’s "system of administration and organization of life in the North Caucasus has completely exhausted itself,” an Israeli analyst says, and as a result, "the 200-year colonial presence of the Russian Empire [in that region] is moving toward its logical end.” The only remaining quesiton is how much more blood will be shed.
In an analysis postred on APN.ru at the end of last week, Avraam Shmulyevich, an independent scholar, developed this idea, one that is attracting particular attention in Russia because it coincided with a visit to Moscow by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (www.apn.ru/publications/article23896.htm).
Shmulyevich begins his essay with a discussion of a report in a Stavropol newspaper concerning a discussion earlier in the week of Moscow’s continuing financial support of the various republics of that region by ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: Preliminary Results From 2010 Census Highlight Russia’s Problems
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Window on Eurasia: Preliminary Results from 2010 Census Highlight Russia’s ProblemsPaul Goble
Fairfax, March 29 – Preliminary results from the 2010 Russian census highlight some of that country’s most serious underlying problems and thus appear likely to be the subject of intense discussion and debate not only among commentators but also in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.
The results released yesterday show a continuing decline in the total Russian population, a hollowing out of much of the country, an increase in the gender imbalance Russia has suffered since World War II, and, what is especially disturbing to many Russians, a shift in the ethnic balance of the population as a result of differential birthrates and immigration.
And those trends -- which some observers are already suggesting may be even worse than the official figures show -- help explain why some Russian leaders wanted to put off the census or ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: Moscow Planning To Abolish Non-Russian Republics, Pavlova Says
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Window on Eurasia: Moscow Planning to Abolish Non-Russian Republics, Pavlova SaysPaul Goble
Fairfax, March 30 – Under the cover of the international effort against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, the leaders of the ruling United Russia Party are planning to abolish the non-Russian republics within the Russian Federation and to create a unitary state far more severe in its constraints than even the one Stalin established in the USSR, according to Irina Pavlova.
But this effort which is explicitly intended to prevent the disintegration of the Russian Federation, the Grani.ru commentator continues, will put in place a delayed action political "mine” even more powerful and dangerous than the one that Stalin put in place and that led to the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 (www.grani.ru/opinion/m.187367.html).
And consequently, unless the security services maintain their current all-powerful position, she argues, the country is likely not only to disintegrate at some point ... >> full
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