"Russia in Global Affairs" 2006 Vol.4
 
 
 CONTENTS

From Nationalism to Nation
Fyodor Lukyanov
5


Russia - A Divided Nation?

Kondopoga: A Warning Bell
Alexander Dugin
8
The events that exploded to the surface in that small microcosm of Russian
society reflect the country's situation on the ethnic, professional and
psychological plane. Kondopoga may blaze a trail into the abyss for all of
us, as the road of interethnic tensions will only lead to Russia's collapse,
to a finale where it will lose its leading positions in global geopolitics.



Non-Islamic Extremism in Today's Russia
Nikolai Mitrokhin
14
The Russian elite has made a choice in favor of a right-wing conservative
and isolationist ideology and policy, which is reminiscent of the era of
McCarthyism in the United States. The authorities and large national capital
defend their property and domestic market from strangers and occasionally
expand, if need be.




Islam, the Way We See It
Alexei Malashenko
28
Russia's attitude to Islam and Muslims also fits into the general context of
xenophobia that in the first half of the 1990s was considered to be a
hangover of post-totalitarian thinking; 10 years later, however, it has
turned into a core element of the public consciousness.


The Conflict of Civilizations: What Is in Store for Russia?
Mikhail Demurin
42
It would be better to avoid any more labor migrants, whose inflow has
reached a scale likely to jeopardize the ethnic and cultural balance in
Russia's major cities and in the Russian Federation on the whole.
Furthermore, their presence serves to provoke an increase of tensions
between different ethnic groups.


The Soviet Union 15 Years After


President Putin as Prince Hamlet
Dmitry Furman
56
A society that lacks the ability to live in a democracy, as well as having
no alternatives to it, produces the sort of political system that has taken
shape in Russia. It is a system of presidential power disguised in the
vestments of democracy. Yet such a system does not stem from malevolent
intent, but rather emerges on its own.

Uncompleted Transition
Leonid Grigoriev, Marsel Salikhov
63
Inherent weaknesses of the newly independent countries include not only high
social costs and poor product quality, but also a shortage of managerial
capital with the experience and abilities required to successfully compete
on the global market.


Labor Migration - Factors and Alternatives
Serguey Ivanov
84
Although Moscow has repeatedly declared that it views ethnic Russians in the
ex-Soviet Union as the main reserve of immigrants into Russia, it still does
not have an intelligible strategy for attracting and assimilating these
groups, while the existing rules for granting Russian citizenship remain
highly restrictive.


What We Know About Post-Soviet Countries
Modest Kolerov
98
Throughout the post-Soviet space, at the helm of political, spiritual and
all other kinds of power, there comes nationalism. Nationalism may vary from
soft political to rigid ethnocratic, but one way or another, states that
have seen the rise of their statehood, regard their national idea not as
something shameful but as a long-formulated ideology.


Real Sovereignty and Sovereign Democracy
Andrei Kokoshin
105
Rational and realistic views of democracy as a system of governance that
ensures greater efficiency are not yet widespread in Russian society.
Russians pinned too much hope on democracy as an ideology, especially in the
late 1980s-early 1990s, and idealized its attributes. No doubt those
sentiments flourished under strong external influences of various kinds.


The Energy Superpower


Russia's "Energy Key" Strategy
Mikhail Dmitriev
120
If Russia concentrates its energy exports solely on Europe, we would do so
without receiving markets for our high-value-added exports in exchange. We
may just not find such markets in Europe. But if we want to receive
promising markets in China and India, we must understand that the "energy
key" is the easiest way to open them.



Neo-Con Plans and the Sober Reality
Vladimir Milov
124
For Russian neo-cons, the idea of entering the energy markets of the largest
Asian powers - China and India - is cast almost as an economic basis for a
global geopolitical revolution. Russia will restructure its energy supply
system away from Europe, leaving it with an acute energy shortage, while
providing economic underpinnings to the BRIC as a global geopolitical
alternative to the West.


Assessing Russia's Energy Doctrine
Mikhail Delyagin
134
Objectively, Russia's strategic goal is to gain full control over the gas
and oil pipeline network across the post-Soviet space. Presently, the main
priority of Russia's energy strategy should be to block - at any cost and by
any means - the implementation of a gas pipeline project from Kazakhstan to
Turkey bypassing Russia, as well as all other projects that threaten to cut
Russia off from vital gas sources.


Global Agenda


Growing Pains or a Paradigm Shift?
Roderic Lyne, Strobe Talbott and Koji Watanabe
146
There is no denying that the Cold War left a legacy of suspicion which can
all too easily, albeit irrationally, be reawakened. Responsible leaders
should refrain from playing on that legacy and reopening old wounds.
Paranoia makes bad policy. If, as it seems, we have entered a period of
turbulence, there will be a need to exercise restraint, built on the many
things which bind us together, and focus clearly on our long-term goals and
best interests.

U.S. - Russian Relations: An American Perspective
Robert Legvold
157
The source of the challenge is whether Russia is (or soon will be) too
strong or too weak. In fact, Russia is both. The tendency of leadership in
both countries to waver inconsistently between the two images, rather than
deal candidly and carefully with the way the two are conjoined, gives to
narrow, near-term irritants a heightened resonance.


The Strategic Dilemma of Central Asia
Farkhod Tolipov
170
The Central Asian countries are now objects of global politics. Their
transition from being "objects" to becoming "subjects" is possible only
through full-fledged regional integration. Clearly, strategic partnership
must be established, above all, between the states of the region themselves.
Perhaps, this is the best way to solve the strategic dilemma in Central
Asia.


Cuba: The Final Act
Carlos Alberto Montaner
179
For three generations, the Cubans have had to adapt their behavior to the
arbitrariness, pressure and abuse of a totalitarian dictatorship and, as
with all the other countries that have abandoned Communism, those conditions
have created in society some negative habits that will be very difficult to
eradicate, ft will take time before the Cubans discover that life in freedom
is different.


Responses

The Pragmatic Option?
Fabrizio Tassinari, Marius Vahl
192

Structural Militarization and Russia's Failed Transition
Steven Rosefielde
210