 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
RUSSIA IN THE CASPIAN
Sergey ZHILTSOV
Sergey Zhiltsov, Ph.D. (Philos.), observer,
Vestnik Kaspia journal (Moscow, Russian Federation)
Contraction of Russia’s Geopolitical Expanse
For centuries Russia has been the center of power in the Caspian; for centuries it has conducted an active policy there. Today, it can rely on its experience of multisided and bilateral cooperation in the region. In December 1991, however, it revealed to the world an image that dramatically differed from all previous historical forms of its statehood. This is true of Russia’s political system, its borders, and its geopolitical neighbors. Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan joined Iran and Russia as independent states. Their fuel reserves added weight to their international prestige. D. Yergin, one of the leading experts in oil-related issues, has said: “We should expect an ‘unexpected surprise,’ which will become obvious post factum. Everything that might affect our access to the sources of oil—violence, wars, technogenic threats, political collisions, economic imperatives, ethnic, religious, ideological, or social conflicts—could strike out of the blue.”
In post-Soviet times the Caspian became a knot of contradictory regional and extra-regional interests, a place where geopolitical aims and strategies clashed. In these conditions, Russia had to formulate new geopolitical aims, while bearing in mind the geopolitical interests of its neighbors and certain other states, the political aims of which often had nothing in common with what Moscow wanted. The local oil and gas reserves are important for their owners. More than that, they are important for Western countries, which has created new serious problems for Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. Here I have in mind their complete dependence on Russia in the transport and communication sphere. It was the Russian Federation’s main intention to force Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to transport their oil across Russian territory to Novorossiisk in order to be able to influence the situation in the region as a whole and in individual countries.
Russia’s foreign policy was unfolding under geopolitical conditions that differed greatly from Soviet times. The territory of its geopolitical, military, political, economic, and cultural influence shrank. In fact, it lost everything it had been fighting for during the past two centuries: in the Caucasus it retreated to the borders of the early 19th century; in Central Asia, to the borders of the mid-19th century, and in the west, to the borders of the early 17th century. In just a few days, Russia lost everything it had possessed for several hundred years, everything for which it had fought numerous wars and for which it had sacrificed millions of lives. As a result, the Caspian, which for 250 years had been the zone of Russian-Iranian political and………………..
Please fill subscription form to obtain full text of this jounal
 |