Window On Eurasia: Luzhkov’s Ouster Said A Defeat For Moscow Patriarchate, Setback For Russia’s Imperial Nationalists
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posted by eagle on September, 2010 as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Staunton, September 28 – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s ouster of longtime Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is a stinging defeat for the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church which enjoyed close ties to the mayor and actively supported him even when the Kremlin sent clear signals that he was on his way out, according to one analyst. And at the same time, Luzhkov’s departure removes from the scene one of the most consistent advocates of a neo-imperial policy for the Russian Federation, as another Moscow commentator points out, as well as forcing from office the author of the notorious October 1993 decree expelling from the Russian capital "persons of Caucasus nationality.” While neither religion nor nationality issues probably played a major role in Luzhkov’s fall from grace, both are certainly going to be ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: Proposed Caspian-Black Sea Canal Would Have Enormous Geopolitical Impact
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Staunton, September 28 – A Russian-Kazakhstan working group will present a plan for the construction of building a canal between the Caspian and Azov seas, an enormously expensive "gigantist” project with roots in the Stalinist 1930s and one that, if realized, would have enormous geopolitical consequences. "In today’s "Izvestiya,” journalist Konstantin Volkov says that what his Moscow paper has been able to learn so far this "new mega-project,” one that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has supported since at least 2007, "promises to become the most expensive in the entire history of contemporary Russia” (www.izvestia.ru/obshestvo/article3146612/) In 2009, Volkov says, the European Development Bank provided 2.7 million US dollars to study two possible routes – a "Eurasian” canal just north of the North Caucasus mountain range and a second branch of the existing Volga-Don canal which would pass somewhat ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: Unlike EU, Russia Is Transforming Regionalists Into Separatists, Shtepa Says
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Staunton, September 28 – Unlike the European Union which has successfully transformed most separatist movements into regionalist ones, Moscow is transforming the regionalist movements in the Russian Federation into separatist ones, according to a leading Russian theorist on regionalism. In a speech earlier this month in St. Petersburg on the future of northwest Russia, Vadim Shtepa argued, drawing on the work of Britain’s Roland Robertson, that "globalization, however paradoxical it may seen is connected with the growth of regionalism” in a "dialectical” process known as "glocalization” (www.ingria.info/?biblio&news_action=show_news&news_id=5059). That places new challenges on governments and on larger political unions. In both the European Union and in the Pacific region, regions within one country are establishing direct contact with regions in others, a process that some have said will lead to "the end of the nation state” but ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: Moscow’s Introduction Of Chechnya-Style Force Structures In Daghestan Worries Many There And Elsewhere
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Staunton, September 29 – As violence in Daghestan mounts and the death toll in that North Caucasus republic mounts, Moscow’s decision to create new military units in that North Caucasus republic made up primarily of members of local nationalities, a system that resembles the one Ramzan Kadyrov has in Chechnya, is proving to be increasingly controversial. Two days ago, Vasily Panchenkov, press spokesman for the internal troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, announced that a special battalion was being formed in Daghestan whose personnel, both draftees and professionals, are drawn primarily from the nationalities of that republic (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/174871/). The spokesman added that "the decision on the creation of [this] military unit” which has been discussed in the Moscow and Makhachkala media over the last month, "was taken by Russian Federation President ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: North Caucasian Militants Want Russia To Want Independence Of North Caucasus, Mamsurov Says
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Staunton, September 27 – Militants in the North Caucasus republics want to create a situation in which residents there will decide that they would be better off outside of the Russian Federation, but even more, the head of the Republic of North Ossetia says, they seek by their actions to get Russians to want precisely that. To that end, Taymuraz Mamsurov says in an interview published in today’s "Kommersant,” the militants try to do everything so that Russians will view North Caucasians as "wild men whom it is impossible to education but only possible to destroy” so that eventually Russians will say enough (kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1511641&NodesID=6). And in pursuit of that goal, he continues, they are prepared to engage in the most horrific act of terrorism like the September 9th explosion in Vladikavkaz and to ... >> full
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