WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2010

Window on Eurasia: Constant Invocations of Cultural Determinism Threatens Russia, Scholar Says

Paul Goble

Staunton, August 25 – Both supporters and opponents of the current Russian regime routinely argue that Russian cultural traditions explain why the country has not become a democracy with the rule of law, "an ‘iron’ argument” that is not nearly as compelling as those on either side of the political divide who invoke it believe.
In a posting on the Slon.ru portal, Vladimir Gelman, a Russian professor at the University of Texas at Austin, says that many of those who rely on cultural determinism to explain why in Russia political and legal institutions are so ineffective and weak are not only failing to consider other factors but justifying their own passivity (slon.ru/blogs/gelman/post/442402/).
Still worse, he suggests that this view, if it remains unchallenged, could lead to a situation where Russia would be confronted with a choice between "the destruction of this country” in order to achieve decent administration or "the introduction on ...

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010

Window on Eurasia: The Middle Class By Itself Won’t Be Russia’s Salvation, Tsipko Says

Paul Goble

Staunton, August 22 – Many commentators in both Moscow and the West argue that the rise of a middle class will transform Russia into a European-style country, but, according to one of the Russian capital’s most provocative commentators, that notion is "the purest utopia” because it ignores the nature of Russian culture.
Writing in the current issue of "Argumenty i fakty,” Aleksandr Tsipko says that "the average Russian does not have any desire to get involved in public affairs or build civil society” and that the reason for that lies not in the paternalism many profess to see but in "the personal egoism” of Russians who are concerned only about themselves, their families, and close friends.
That is something, Tsipko says, that "our ‘liberals’ do not understand,” even though it is the subject of many of the works of the late émigré and now extremely influential Russian thinker Ivan Ilin ...

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KOSOVO RULING "PANDORA’S BOX” FOR CAUCASUS

States and self-declared republics divided by international court ruling that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was legal.

By Karine Ohanian, Shahin Rzayev, Nino Kharadze

Politicians in the South Caucasus were stunned by a ruling by the International Court of Justice, ICJ, that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was legal, with one observer saying it opened a Pandora’s box for the troubled region.

The South Caucasus, according to most maps, consists of just three countries. But there are in addition three self-declared states – all of them largely or entirely unrecognised by outside powers.

The ICJ in The Hague had been asked by the United Nations Security Council, acting on a request from Serbia, to decide whether "Is the declaration of independence by Kosovo’s provisional government in 2008 was in accordance with international law. The court ruled on July 22 that the declaration "did not violate general international law".

The ruling delighted the governments of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which claim independence ...
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Thinking the Unthinkable: What if Georgia and the West Were to Recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia? by Paul Goble

Saturday, 07 August 2010 14:43

Paul Goble | Special to Abkhaz World  What if Georgia and the West were to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, something they have sworn never to do?  Would that be as some of their leaders have argued the recognition of the fruits of Russian aggression as legitimate and thus open the way to the ultimate destruction of the Republic of Georgia and further Russian military actions against other former Soviet republics? Or would that step in fact work against the Russian Federation itself, leading to more claims of the right of self-determination by the peoples of the North Caucasus and perhaps further afield, and thus produce after a period of instability a new balance in the region, one that might ...

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