khrushcheva146_ Russian Defense Ministry Press Service HandoutAnadolu Agency via Getty Images_russia kazakhstan

كازاخستان وثمن الإمبراطورية الروسية

Jan 7, 2022 Nina L. Khrushcheva

موسكو - وصل جنود المظلات من قوات النخبة الروسية "سبيتسناز" - وهي القوات الخاصة التابعة للجيش الروسي - إلى كازاخستان لقمع الاحتجاجات العدائية التي اجتاحت البلاد ضد النظام الموالي للكرملين. تم تنفيذ هذه الخطوة في وقت يتم فيه بالفعل حشد القوات الروسية بالقرب من الحدود الأوكرانية، وبعد 15 شهرًا فقط من تدخل كتيبة البندقية الروسية لإنهاء الأعمال العدائية والصراع بين أرمينيا وأذربيجان في ناغورنو كاراباخ. هل يحاول الرئيس فلاديمير بوتين فعلاً إعادة بناء الإمبراطورية الروسية؟

وبطبيعة الحال، لا يمكن للمرء معرفة ما يدور في ذهن رجل الكرملين الغامض بالتحديد. ومع ذلك، أيا كانت نوايا بوتين، فإن تصرفاته تقوض على نحو خطير الفكرة التي دعمت إنشاء الاتحاد الروسي قبل 30 عامًا.

نادراً ما يتم التحدث اليوم عن بوريس يلتسين، أول رئيس لروسيا في فترة ما بعد الاتحاد السوفيتي. وإذا ذكره الروس، فإنهم على الأرجح يتذكرون إدمانه المفرط لشرب الكحول، أو الأهم من ذلك، التضخم والفقر اللذين صاحبا انتقال روسيا إلى اقتصاد السوق. ربما لا يعتبرونه صاحب رؤى تاريخية عميقة.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 12 Comments on this article

Robert Johnston Jan 9, 2022

Empires die hard. (See also, in our time, Ethiopia, and Britain is still at it.)
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Alex Tuz Jan 9, 2022

Why does PS continue to publish this clearly biased hater and expert-in-nothing Khrusheva?
- John Alexander Jan 13, 2022
  
  Maybe you will allow another opinion. Nina K. strikes this reader as an example of those women who write with a calm sobriety and honesty not always displayed by political commentators. I hope PS keeps printing her.
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Bernhard Kopp Jan 8, 2022

The author knows very well - although President Xi may not know it so specifically - that the Baltic States were ethnically and culturally never Russian. Even the Soviet-times settlement of ethnic Russians in Estonia and Latvia did not eradicate the local identity. Hence, local elites, supported by returning diaspora-elites, were able to establish a statehood formed on the Western tradition of enlightended segregation of power, rule of law and democracy. Ethnic and culturally Russian spin-offs of Russia, renegade provinces of Mother Russia, like Belarus and Ukraine, were not, since they are culturally Russian and authoritarian to their bone marrow. Hence, authoritarian rule and oligarchic kleptocracies just like in Moscow. Kazakhstan, like the other -stans, were imperial colonies and Russian rule and Russian were intensely disliked by locals. It must have been quite hard for the present Kazakh-elite to call Moscow for help, allthough they have, one way or the other, the money or the oil/gas to pay for. Moscow will welcome the opportunity to keep them closer to their chest. On questions of authoritarian rule, neither Moscow, nor Beijing, have any problems with Kazakhstan. In this regard the local elite is " Russian to the core", authoritarian and predatory to the benefit of the elite.
- Jonathan Engel Jan 13, 2022
  
  Agree strongly with this comment, particularly as it concerns Kazakhstan, which I know quite well having worked there during the period just after the collapse of the Soviet Empire. The complexity of the country, and it's short history as a settled environment make nation building challenging. I hope Russia will be able to help.
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- Alex Tuz Jan 9, 2022
  
  Bullshit, the Baltics have always been Slavic/Russian. Read history pls.
  - Henry Rech Jan 13, 2022
    
    It matters not whether the Baltic peoples are Russian or Prussian.
    
    What matters is that they want to be free of Russian oppression.
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  - Bernhard Kopp Jan 13, 2022
    
    One part of my family has medieval ancestors going back to the " Baltic crusade " of the 12th century, the founding of Riga in 1201, and the German " landed gentry" in the region for over 700 years. I am afraid that you seem to have an erroneous picture of history.
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  - Mirek Fatyga Jan 12, 2022
    
    I think BS is on you.
    
    As far as Russia goes, you sow the wind, you may just gather the storm. Russia has been playing at war for most of this century. One day, it may just get it. This is how the world works. Don't play the victim all over again when this happens, as the next war could easily go nuclear.
    
    for the reader, just a little bit of history of the Baltic states:
    
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_states
    
    Some information about the Ribbentrop-Molotov treaty which started wars of Russian aggression in the Bolshevik era and which Putin would like to continue.
    
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact
    
    Russia is a violent, aggressive country that threatens peace in Europe and of the world by extension. Soviet regime has been guilty of unspeakable acts of violence, ethnic cleansing, deportations, campaigns of deliberate starvation and mass murder. In the wake of these campaigns there are Russian minorities in multiple places. If Russian regime is allowed to, these minorities will be used in the same way that Sudeten Germans were used in Chechoslovakia: an excuse for a war of aggression.
    
    It is time that the world faces this reality: an attempt to reform Russia in the post soviet era has failed. Russia reverted to its old self. A dark, violent autocracy that uses war and the threat of war to maintain its autocratic regime. Russian people will pay the price, as they always have. Unless they wise up and rid themselves of this cancer in their midst.
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كازاخستان وثمن الإمبراطورية الروسية

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