Russia: Armies, Borders and Politics
Russian news this past week has been dominated by security-oriented content, starting with the ongoing discussions with the United States on reducing nuclear armaments. Vice-Premier Sergey Ivanov, representing the Russian side, stressed that when it comes to moving past nuclear-armaments agreement that expires at the end of 2009, his country would like a greater role for the United Nations, maintaining international security and stability and development of the strategy to combat emerging threats. Key issues for Russia at present are international agreement on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, prohibitions on nuclear weapons testing and prohibitions on chemical and biological armaments. Ivanov also stressed that Russia would like negotiating sides to agree on prohibition of placing nuclear weapons beyond the borders of US or Russia.
Russia's security in its near abroad got front page coverage when Alexander Golovin, Special Representative of the Russian President on issues of Demarcation of Borders with former Soviet states talked on determining Russian official border with "two newly created countries - Abkhazia and South Ossetia." Moscow held negotiations with Georgia on the status of Russian border in breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but "after Georgian aggression in August last year, both sides no longer meet. We are now preparing to hold such talks with Abkhazia and South Ossetia - as independent states, and as determined in our joint agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. This process is at the initial stages - we are still forming official delegations (for such talks)."
The key issue here is that Russia is willing to treat both former Georgian provinces as independent states - not as parts of Georgia, or constituent republics of Russia or even official Russian territory. Such stance puts it directly in odds with the United States and her European allies that call for the respect of territorial integrity of Georgia, which would include such breakaway provinces as parts of Georgia proper. "Abkhazia and South Ossetia are two countries that are allies of Russia," said Golovin. "During Soviet period, there were administrative borders between Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic and Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Abkhazian and South Ossetian regions. Today, it is important for us to confirm such borders as official state borders between the Russian Federation, Republics of Abkhazia and Republic of South Ossetia."
Recently, Russia spearheaded the creation of the Collective Rapid Reaction Force made up of the militaries of the former Soviet countries that form the Commonwealth of Independent States. An analysis of such an alliance in daily "Izvestia" described such force with the potential to turn into "... a powerful military-political block. One just has to look at the map in order to see that countries making up such rapid reaction force - Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia - are essentially making up the rump Soviet Union. Even without Ukraine."
The analysis presented the strengths and benefits of such military alliance by country. "What do Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Uzbekistan have in common? They all have stable political regimes, which is very important in context of the ongoing global economic crisis. Russia and Kazakhstan have very strong economic footing - they have plenty of energy resources, most importantly oil and natural gas. This economic potential is enough for these two states - first of all Russia - to become the leading powers of this new block, bringing their allies to their (economic) level."
Other countries of this alliance bring major benefits as well - "Armenia should be considered as a strategic bastion of the Rapid Reaction Force in the South Caucasus region. Moreover, Yerevan can bring its partners other benefits- we must not forget how strong is the influence of Armenian diaspora in the United States, France and other Western countries. The opinion of such diaspora is not easy to ignore."
While Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have weak economies, small militaries and have recently be plagued by political instability, "... the time for color revolutions is over. the self-preservation instinct calls on people to consolidate, not to rock the boat. This instinct call on leaders of these countries to embrace their natural allies. For the United States, both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are important so long as America is engaged in the war in Afghanistan. But it will not stay there forever- sooner or later, the US and NATO will leave the region. And then Bishkek and Dushanbe will again turn into distant periphery for Washington and Brussels. But for Moscow and Alma-Ata these states will never become unimportant - and this is they key to the long life of this new military-political block. We as countries need each other, and are willing to risk in order to keep our partners safe and sound."
Meanwhile, President Dmitry Medvedev made a major step towards relaxing official rules for registration of political parties. Until now, in order to be considered an official party in the Russian Federation, such party had to have 50,000 members. Medvedev's proposal lowered that number to 45,000. Another clause in his proposal calls on parties to continuously renew the party leadership ranks, and to let go "of eternal leaders." The majority of Russian Duma deputies consider this only the beginning of party reforms - there are indicators that more steps in easing of official party rules will be undertaken.
"Further benchmarks will lower the number of party membership to just 40,000 people - in our opinion, it is the most optimal number," said Vladimir Pligin, Chairman of the Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation. "These initiatives have one goal - to strengthen the political structure of our society. Through such parties, various population groups should take part in government work and in official decision-making process," said Andrey Isaev, Chairman of the Duma Committee on Social Politics.
