Ex Repúblicas Soviéticas

Vania Vanishlivi, de 88 años, el pasado mes de mayo junto en el territorio de Khurvaleti (Georgia), ocupado desde 2008 por Rusia.SOPA Images Limited / Alamy Stoc (Alamy Stock Photo)

Europa,

En el verano de 2014, en un campamento de Rostov del Don (Rusia) repleto de refugiados procedentes de los territorios separatistas del Donbás, una abuela mecía a un bebé mientras conversaba con esta periodista: “Ucrania no nos deja hablar en nuestra lengua”, decía, en ruso. Poco a poco, sin embargo, la mujer se pasó al ucranio y en este idioma repetía el mismo mensaje: “No nos dejan usar nuestra lengua, no nos dejan…”. Aquella abuela, que pasaba fluidamente de un idioma eslavo a otro sin advertirlo siquiera, evidenciaba cuán movedizas podían llegar a ser las identidades en los espacios de la antigua Unión Soviética varias décadas después de su desaparición.…  Seguir leyendo »

Dismantling a Soviet Union monument in Kyiv, Ukraine, erected in 1982 as a symbol of Ukraine and Russia being supposedly reunified during the Soviet government era. Photo by Salvatore Cavalli/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.

Europa,

Although the reverberations of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine clearly stretch around the globe, the strongest shocks are – and will continue to be – felt by those countries Moscow used to directly rule.

These countries struggle to shrug off a Soviet legacy as, to varying degrees – linguistically, technologically, culturally, and politically – they bear psychological and physical scars of Russia’s colonial past and its present mentality.

It does not help that these countries lack an appropriate collective descriptor. Over the years there has been ‘Newly Independent States’ – hardly appropriate after 31 years – the now-defunct ‘Commonwealth of Independent States’, the ‘post-Soviet space’ and ‘Former Soviet Union’ which both reference the past, and simply ‘Eurasia’ which is hardly appropriate for either Ukraine or Turkmenistan.…  Seguir leyendo »

Supporters of the Russian Communist Party are seen ahead of a flower laying ceremony at Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's grave, marking the 142nd anniversary of his birth.

Europa,

When the Soviet Union finally fell, it was in a mundane way, as if it had clocked off from a normal day's work.

On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev addressed the Soviet citizens and announced his resignation as president. A little after 7:30 p.m. that same day, the Soviet flag, waving in the wind, was lowered from the flagpole above the presidential residence in the Kremlin.

For five minutes the flagpole stood bare, as if to symbolize the transition of power. By 7:45 p.m. the Russian tricolor was hoisted on it.

The following day, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. And with that, the empire in which I'd been born and spent the first 26 years of my life came to an end.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘The new activists like to reach out to the public through art.’ Activists attend an event in Volgograd in 2016. Photograph: Alena Alexeeva for the Guardian

Europa,

An exciting wave of innovative activism is emerging across the former Soviet Union. I work for an organisation that supports civic activists and I see a new energy, self-belief and creativity that defies the pessimism permeating western debates about civil society in the region.

What’s refreshing about these Generation Z activists is that they’ve linked up with designers, tech experts and artists to test new forms of advocacy, campaigning and storytelling. This has led to a surge of online multimedia campaigns and interactive games on social issues. Some have used chatbots to offer instant support to victims of human rights abuses.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalONU

Alors que la 73e session annuelle de l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies (AGNU) s’est ouverte le 18 septembre dernier, il peut être instructif de se pencher sur les plus de 310 résolutions qui ont été adoptées lors de la précédente session, ceci du point de vue du vote des pays postsoviétiques*. Que nous indiquent-ils de leur évolution dans le système international?

L’exception du Turkménistan

Depuis 1991, les pays de l’espace postsoviétique évoluent différemment dans le système international. Un premier groupe d’Etats est plutôt proche de la Russie et participe à un nombre élevé d’institutions formées autour de celle-ci. A titre d’exemple, l’Union économique eurasiatique (UEEA) compte parmi ses Etats membres l’Arménie, la Biélorussie, le Kazakhstan, et le Kirghizistan.…  Seguir leyendo »

El momento decisivo de 2008

EuropaInternacionalOrden Mundial,

Diez años atrás esta semana, tanques rusos frenaron una marcha de pocas horas cerca de Tbilisi, la capital de Georgia. Esa breve guerra en el Cáucaso bajó el telón a casi dos décadas de hegemonía occidental post-Guerra Fría en Europa. Alentada por la administración del presidente norteamericano George W. Bush, Georgia había iniciado conversaciones para ingresar a la OTAN, incitando al presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin, a defender la línea roja que había trazado el año anterior. Rusia, anunció Putin en la Conferencia de Seguridad de Múnich en febrero de 2007, consideraría cualquier expansión futura hacia el este de las instituciones occidentales como un acto de agresión.…  Seguir leyendo »

A man watches Russian military jets performing in Alabino, Russia, outside Moscow. (Pavel Golovkin, File/AP Photo)

Europa, ,

As Russia prepares for its annual strategic military exercises, speculation is mounting that the Zapad-2017 war games, set for Thursday through Sept. 20 in western Russia and Belarus, might be a prelude to war. Ukraine’s defense minister cautioned that Zapad could be a ruse to attack any European country “that shares a border with Russia”, while the New York Times proclaimed that the drills near NATO’s borders have raised “fears of aggression”. A CNN contributor wondered, “Could they turn into war?”

My analysis of Russia’s recent war games suggests that this is highly unlikely. The Russian military is preparing for war, but that is what generals in all countries do — prepare for worst-case scenarios, and carry out large-scale exercises to test the military’s readiness for them.…  Seguir leyendo »

Zapad-2017

Europa, ,
Tema

Rusia y Bielorrusia han anunciado Zapad-2017, maniobras militares entre el 14 y 20 de septiembre en el Mar Báltico, Kaliningrado, Rusia occidental y Bielorrusia.

Resumen

El anuncio de las maniobras Zapad-2017 (zapad en ruso significa “oeste”) ha levantado entre los analistas occidentales la sospecha de que Moscú podría usarlas para atacar a un país miembro de la OTAN. Aunque la invasión de Georgia en 2008 y la anexión de Crimea en 2014 contaron con efectivos que estaban realizando entrenamientos militares, actualmente Rusia no aspira a emprender nuevas aventuras bélicas (y menos contra un país de la Alianza Atlántica) sino a reducir el conflicto en Ucrania para revertir las sanciones impuestas por EEUU y la UE, desactivar la retórica anti-rusa y socavar a los que advierten de las intenciones agresivas del Kremlin.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, ,

Hoy, un cuarto de siglo después del final de la Guerra Fría, Occidente y Rusia están otra vez enfrentados. Pero esta vez (al menos para uno de los lados), está claro que la disputa tiene que ver más con el poder geopolítico que con la ideología. Occidente ha dado apoyo, en diversas formas, a movimientos democráticos en la región post‑soviética, sin disimular su entusiasmo por las varias “revoluciones de colores” que sustituyeron a viejos dictadores por líderes más receptivos (aunque no todos resultaron los demócratas convencidos que decían ser).

Demasiados países en el ex bloque soviético siguen bajo control de líderes autoritarios, entre ellos algunos que, como el presidente ruso Vladimir Putin, aprendieron a mantener una fachada electoral más convincente que sus predecesores comunistas.…  Seguir leyendo »

The day the Soviet Union died

Europa,

On Christmas Day 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev picked up a pen to sign the document officially terminating the U.S.S.R. It had no ink. Mr. Gorbachev was obliged to borrow a pen from the CNN crew covering the event, a fitting end for the unelected president of a country headed for the ash heap of history.

Czech President Vaclav Havel called the fall of the Soviet Empire “an event on the same scale of historical importance as the fall of the Roman Empire.” We should not let this, its 25th anniversary, pass without remark or reflection.

As a visibly bewildered Mr.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Flashback to My Soviet Childhood

Europa,

The gas masks given to me and other Soviet first graders in 1987 were hand-me-downs from World War II, made of stiff rubber and too big for our faces. They trapped moisture and reduced the world to two blurry circles bouncing in front of my face. Our teacher didn’t tell us about the gas mask drill ahead of time — she simply handed out the masks, and we blindly paraded around the school before going back to our lessons. None of us bothered to ask why we were training. There was no need.

By the time my classmates and I entered first grade, we already knew that the United States and its Western allies were planning to harm us, the children of School No.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa,

Twenty-five years ago this Christmas Day, the Soviet Union dissolved quietly and peacefully, effectively ending the Cold War. Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the Soviet Union’s leader, and its 15 constituent republics went their separate ways. This development surprised even Mr. Gorbachev, who intended only to update his nation, not to destroy it.

“Reforming and refreshing the Soviet Union was necessary and possible,” he told Russia’s TASS news service earlier this month. “I was defending the USSR till the very end. No one thought the USSR could be eliminated. It fell into pieces by itself.”

Several of the former Soviet republics have, in fact, reformed and refreshed since then.…  Seguir leyendo »

Spring rains cover the Rukhi bridge, located on the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict divide, before much needed renovation works began in summer 2016.

MundoCáucaso,

The lung specialist I consulted for bronchitis recently in Abkhazia exuded competence, warmth and the poetic courtesy of Soviet-era intelligentsia. She apologised for the hospital as she flicked through a notebook from a year-old seminar on the latest treatment protocols in Russia. She said she had been lucky to attend the briefing: most doctors from Abkhazia or other conflict or breakaway regions in the former Soviet space do not learn about modern treatments. Most teachers have little access to new international best practices and methods. Police still work according to old manuals.

A policy called “isolation” by residents of such regions – Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have sought to secede from Georgia, and the Nagorno-Karabakh region at the heart of the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia – severely restricts their links with the world and contributes to a sense of living under siege, sometimes for over two decades.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa,

The latest announcement that Turkish President Recep Erdogan is looking to Russian President Vladimir Putin for assistance will surely be a sign to NATO hopeful countries that Europe and America are distracted. The past few years have been difficult for the former Baltic States and their neighbors as the U.S. has grown increasingly more withdrawn from world affairs and Europe has struggled with its growing divisions. Amidst this vacuum of global leadership, Mr. Putin has stepped up.

Eastern European leaders are left to watch as Germany’s Angela Merkel struggles with serious domestic immigration issues and the next U.S. presidential hopefuls continue America’s preoccupation of looking inward.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa

“Lo peor del comunismo es lo que ha venido después”, declaró al principio de los noventa el periodista y disidente polaco Adam Michnik, horrorizado al ver resurgir el antisemitismo, el fascismo, el chovinismo, la xenofobia y el fanatismo católico en Polonia y otros países poscomunistas europeos.

Muchos firmarían aún hoy la frase de Michnik porque tienen la sensación de que salieron de una dictadura para sumergirse en el reino de la corrupción, establecido, al menos parcialmente, por la antigua élite comunista. Además, consideran que la libertad y la democracia se han creado para los que tienen los medios para disfrutarlas y que, si hay quienes pueden comprar su impunidad, la justicia no existe, como tampoco existía antes.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, ,

Tres ex repúblicas soviéticas – Georgia, Moldova y Ucrania – han firmado acuerdos de asociación con la Unión Europea, a pesar de los intentos, a veces brutales, de Rusia para obstaculizar el proceso. Esto es ciertamente un logro prometedor para todos estos países, que han luchado para alcanzar la estabilidad desde la disolución de la Unión Soviética. No obstante, sería ingenuo pensar que Rusia se dará por vencida tan fácilmente.

Como lo ha demostrado la crisis de Ucrania una vez más, las ex repúblicas soviéticas que intentan tomar decisiones geopolíticas sin el consentimiento del Kremlin no permanecen intactas por mucho tiempo.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden Mundial,

En Washington, como era de esperar, se ha abierto un debate: ¿ha comenzado una nueva guerra fría? Si es así, ¿hasta dónde llegará el conflicto? Tiene lugar en los medios de comunicación, así como en el Gobierno. Un centro de investigación ha pedido a 21 destacados expertos en Rusia su opinión sobre Vladímir Putin. Las respuestas van desde que el líder ruso es un loco a la opinión de que su actuación estaba perfectamente justificada y que todo es culpa de Occidente.

El nivel de sofisticación de estos intercambios de pareceres no es muy alto. La mayoría de los expertos en Rusia en Estados Unidos han desaparecido tras el colapso de la Unión Soviética.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa

En los últimos meses estamos asistiendo a una serie de reajustes en el frágil equilibrio entre las zonas de influencia de la Unión Europea y las de la Federación Rusa en el llamado espacio postsoviético de la Europa Oriental. Los casos de Ucrania, pero también los de Transnistria, Moldavia y Bielorusia, han acompañado con diferentes intensidades a las volátiles situaciones en otros países de la Transcaucasia y Asia Central, como Georgia, Uzbekistán y Tayikistán, entre los más principales.

Tomando como referencias geográficas la antigua República Democrática Alemana de un lado y Rusia de otro, se dibujan dos ejes paralelos: el primero, que engloba a Polonia, Chequia, Eslovaquia, Hungría, Rumanía y Bulgaria; y el segundo que partiendo de los países bálticos, atraviesa Bielorusia, Ucrania y Moldavia.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa,

Russian President Vladimir Putin has had some success recently using his support for the Assad regime in Syria to strengthen Moscow’s position in the Middle East. But his progress on this front is much less important than Moscow’s growing troubles in its “near abroad,” as it refers to the strategically vital area to its immediate west.

In a replay of the classic East-West rivalry of the Cold War, but with the United States conspicuously on the sidelines, Russia has used economic and security threats to draw post-communist countries into its Eurasian Customs Union and to block the European Union’s Eastern Partnership initiative, which seeks the reform and possible eventual integration of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine into E.U.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa,

December marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union. It’s a fitting time, then, to take stock of what was achieved — and what failed — in Eurasia over the last two decades.

The Obama administration has tried to “reset” U.S. relations with Russia. But the recent threat by the Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, to shut down the U.S. supply line to Afghanistan is a reminder of just how deep go the roots of anti-Americanism, and how Russia is increasingly looking away from the West.

It didn’t have to be that way. The multi-faceted collapse of the Soviet empire and its communist ideology was quick by historic yardsticks.…  Seguir leyendo »