... can see our poor hen rushing along the riverbank and calling back home her beloved ducklings, but this is hopeless -they will never come back”.
I recall this metaphor when I look at the current reaction from the Kremlin to events in Belarus, in the South Caucasus and in Kyrgyzstan. The ducklings — each of them in its own way — are deserting the henhouse and are trying to get to the river. Will they make it? Nobody knows for sure. Vladimir Putin, unlike Mikhail Gorbachev, does not watch this ...
The decision to recognize Abkhazia underlines growing competition between the West and Russia
Abkhazia is a partially recognized state — Russia (2008), Nicaragua (2008), Venezuela (2009), Nauru (2009), Syria (2018) — of 8,660km2 and 240,000 inhabitants located on the shores of the Black Sea. During the Soviet times, the region was one of the most prosperous area in the USSR due to its geographic position in addition to a recognized wine industry, tobacco, oranges, and a hub for Soviet tourism....
...
authorities to opt for nothing other than maximal demands such as independence and state
sovereignty
” [
2
]. This is precisely the meaning of the so-called “Kosovo independence precedent,” no matter the extent to which it differs from the case of the South Caucasus or that of Transnistria. Recognizing its legal uniqueness, we should bear in mind that the case of Kosovo has gone far beyond the scope of exclusively legal discussions and has to some extent taken on a life of its own.
Conflicts and Foreign ...
Eurasia is entering the 2020s with a burden of old problems while also facing new dangerous challenges
Confrontation between Russia and the USA/NATO
There is no reason to believe that the worsening relations between Russia and the West, a process that began six years ago following the Ukrainian crisis, will be rectified in the near future. The current conflict is largely due to the fact that, since Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory, Russia has become the bogeyman of the US domestic political...
On October 29, 2019, in Moscow, International Multimedia Press Center at IIA Rossiya Segodnya hosted a round table, during which a presentation of a policy brief on “Russia and Armenia in the Regional Security System” was made. The policy brief was prepared by RIAC in cooperation with the Armenian think tank ARDI Lab.
On October 29, 2019, in Moscow, International Multimedia Press Center at IIA Rossiya Segodnya hosted a round table, during which a presentation of a
policy brief on “Russia and Armenia...
What is the situation in the region, and how to mitigate the risks of the conflicts?
The South Caucasus and Southeast Ukraine are the two significant hotspots in Europe. There are still some tensions in the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict while the Georgian-Abkhaz and the Georgian-Ossetian ones are quite stable. Changes in the South ...
On March 20, 2019, Rudolf Michalka, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, and his advisor Pietro Guastamacchia visited Russian International Affairs Council.
On March 20, 2019, Rudolf Michalka, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus, and his advisor Pietro Guastamacchia ...
On November 8–11, 2018, a seminar on regional security in the South Caucasus was held in Reichenau (Austria). The theme of the seminar was «South Caucasus: Leveraging Political Change in a Context of Strategic Volatility».
On November 8–11, 2018, a seminar on regional security in the South Caucasus was held ...
... However, none of these tasks have been resolved completely. Andrey Kortunov also noted that there is an idea that the Soviet Union’s dissolution is still not completely finished. The evidence of this hypothesis is the situation in Ukraine and in the South Caucasus.
Evgeny Kozhokin, Vice Rector for Research of the MGIMO-University and RIAC member, expressed an opinion that one of the difficulties in creating common economic space on ex-Soviet area was the relative youth of most counties in this region....
South Caucasus has the potential of becoming a stumbling block for both the EU and the EEU in terms of energy cooperation. For now the region remains on the bottom of priority list for both Europe and EEU countries, but in the future when the latter finalize ...
