Tajikistan, Russia and Migrant Workers

Since the beginning of his third term as president, Putin has promoted the creation of the “Eurasian Union” as one of Russia’s major foreign policy goals. In fact, what Moscow wants to construct is not much a neo-Soviet project, as some of the proponents of neo-Eurasianism assumed at the beginning of Putin’s tenure, but a sort of neo-imperial construction. It looks more similar to the European colonial empires of the 19th century, whereby the UK, France and other powers benefited economically from their colonial possessions. This model gave rise to resistance among the potential member states across the post-Soviet space, and Moscow has used a variety of methods to persuade and indeed compel the potential members of this neo-imperial project to join. Emigration is one of the key tools in this sense. The point here is that millions of workers come to Russia from impoverished Central Asian states. Tajikistan is one of these states. Throughout 2013 Moscow has reiterated its threat to limit the numbers of guest workers from Tajikistan, or even to deport those already in Russia unless Dushanbe accepted Moscow’s demands. This approach works

Muslims in Contemporary Russia

There are several reasons for the increasing role of Muslims in contemporary Russia, but those who study the area might conclude that a major, if not the major reason is their growing numbers. It is well known that Russia's population has decreased, but the decline has mostly affected ethnic Russians. Ethnic minorities in the Russian Federation who have historically professed Islam have experienced high birthrates, and consequently, the increasing interest of Muslims in the Federation. But this growth can hardly explain the growing Muslim population and, especially, their conflict with ethnic Russians, historically Orthodox. The source of the rising numbers of Russian Muslims--of various ethnic groups--is the dramatic decline of the global role of Russians, in fact, of the entire Slavic civilization as it has been constructed geopolitically and culturally for centuries

Byzantine history and the discourse of the Russian political/intellectual underground

Historical subjects often seem to be unrelated to current political discourse still could be often politicized in present-day Russia. And Internet discussions on these historical subjects could well provide insight into the views of the various segments of the country’s population. These Internet discussions become especially important sources when one tries to look into the minds of the Russian underground, those who have practically no legal outlet for presenting their views. For this reason, the movie The Death of the Byzantine Empire, shown in the very end of the Putin presidency, is especially important. The movie, created the Orthodox priest Tikhon Shevkunov, (presumably Putin’s confessor) made clear references to contemporary Russia. In the view of the producer, the Byzantine Empire was strong when it followed its autocratic tradition and was attached to Orthodoxy. The movie generated extensive discussions, including among those who belong to Russia’s political and intellectual fringe. Quite a few of them were neo-pagans; for them, Christianity, including Orthodox Christianity, was Russia's curse. For them, it was an Asian creed foreign to Aryan Russians. The fact that it was accepted by Russians implied that Russians had been subjugated by an alien, Asiatic, force. Many of these neo-pagans were quite pessimistic in regard to the country’s future; and, indeed, their response indicates the deep alienation of quite a few Russians, which hardly bodes well for the country’s future

Afanasiy Nikitin’s Journey Beyond the Three Seas: An Orthodox Russian in Medieval India

Afanisy Nikitin (? - 1472) as a Russian merchant from Tver, a city not far from Moscow. Nikitin visited India in 1446-1472 and described his travels in a short travelogue known as The Journey Beyond Three Seas The story was first discovered in a monastary by Nikolai Karamzin, one of the leading historians of 10th century Russia; and since that time. Journey has fascinated both Russian and Western historians as well as political-thinkers who envisage Russia's special role in Asia. In fact, a bibliography of Journey exists in the Western and RUssian languages. What is the significance of The  Journey Beyond Three Seas

Byzantine history and the discourse of the Russian political/intellectual underground

Historical subjects often seem to be unrelated to current political discourse still could be often politicized in present-day Russia. And Internet discussions on these historical subjects could well provide insight into the views of the various segments of the country's population. These Internet discussions become especially important sources when one tries to look into the minds of the Russian underground, those who have practically no legal outlet for presenting their views. For this reason, the movie The Death of the Byzantine Empire, shown in the very end of the Putin presidency, is especially important. The movie, created the Orthodox priest Tikhon Shevkunov, (presumably Putin's confessor) made clear references to contemporary Russia. In the view of the producer, the Byzantine Empire was strong when it followed its autocratic tradition and was attached to Orthodoxy. The movie generated extensive discussions, including among those who belong to Russia's political and intellectual fringe. Quite a few of them were neo-pagans; for them, Christianity, including Orthodox Christianity, was Russia's curse. For them, it was an Asian creed foreign to Aryan Russians. The fact that it was accepted by Russians implied that Russians had been subjugated by an alien, Asiatic, force. Many of these neo-pagans were quite pessimistic in regard to the country's future; and, indeed, their response indicates the deep alienation of quite a few Russians, which hardly bodes well for the country's future

Turkmenistan and military buildup in the caspian region: A small state in the post-unipolar era

Caspian Sea had been actually a Soviet internal lake. Iran was too weak to be a competitor/rival for the USSR. The collapse of the USSR had transformed Caspian Sea into the sea surrounded by several states and each of them vie for the Caspian Sea’s natural resources. Caspian Sea became also important as the route for delivery of oil/gas. All of this led to considerable tensions among the states in the area and naval buildup. Even Turkmenistan, desert republic, started to build the navy and contribute to the rise of tension in Caspian Sea. All of this indicated the increasing global instability which followed the end of Cold War and the end of the USA unipolarity

El conflicto entre Rusia y Bielorrusia: el gas y el petróleo como armas geopolíticas y la naturaleza de las actuales alianzas

The emerging world order is often defined as «multi-polar». This is rather an oversimplistic model. One of the elements of this new order is the absence of strong ties between allies. Moreover, some allies actually interact with each other on the basic «friend-foe» paradigm, in which the alliance could be combined with hostility. Moreover, conflicts between allies are not excluded. Russia’s relationship with Belarus is an example of such relations.El orden mundial emergente se define a menudo como multipolar. Este modelo es demasiado simplista. Uno de los elementos de este nuevo orden es la ausencia de fuertes lazos entre aliados. Es más, algunos de dichos aliados interactúan entre sí basándose en el paradigma básico «amigo-enemigo», en el que pueden combinarse alianza y hostilidad. E incluso, no se excluyen los conflictos entre aliados. La relación de Rusia con Bielorrusia es un ejemplo de este tipo de relacione

RUSSIAN ELITE IMAGE OF IRAN: FROM THE LATE SOVIET ERA TO THE PRESENT

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The socialist regime: The intellectual origin of the images

Every phenomenon exists in several dimensions. It has several ontological attributes, so to speak, which provide opportunities for a variety of interpretations. The Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet regime could be an example. At the beginning of Soviet history the revolution was seen as the beginning of a worldwide revolution opening an era of liberation for workers all over the world. As the Soviet regime solidified its position, the hope for worldwide revolution faded. In the new context, observers, especially outside Russia, looked at the regime from a different perspective. For them it represented the country's national interests, and its socialist slogans should not be taken at face value. Some believed post-revolutionary Russia was similar to post-revolutionary France and was experiencing its “Thermidor.” Others assumed the revolution showed Russia as a “Eurasian” state where all ethnic/religious groups lived in “symbiosis.” Finally, some assumed the Soviet regime would lead to the transformation of the human species and the human conquest of cosmos. This transition from one image to another does not mean that one illusion, one “wrong” image, follows another. It also does not mean the very notion of true meaning is meaningless simply because no reality exists as a fixed entity, and one could therefore “construct” any type of reality. It simply means that there are many attributes of the revolution, which are revealed in the course of time