Russia And Cis Essay

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When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, due to many pressures both internal and

external, the ex-soviet satellites were given their independence, much to

Russia's dismay. A new trend towards sovereignty made it difficult for the

largest country in the world to deny it's former members the right to separate.

However, even with the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),

Russia is still heavily involved with the matters of its former soviet members.

This then leaves the question, are those former states truly sovereign? In the

following pages we will examine the many reasons as to why this question is

currently being posed. Firstly, we will look at Russia's history on the

international scene and how they have not really changed their agenda throughout

the last century, up into the present. Along with the brief history, we shall

elaborate on the reasons why the CIS was founded. Furthermore, modern day Russia

seems to feel the need to impose itself upon these new sovereign states for

various reasons that we will elaborate upon. Lastly, the members of the CIS see

Russia as both a friend and foe to the organisation, which will be shown by

looking at their interests and why they have divided views. However, to fully

understand the complexities that are the Russian Empire, let us take a step back

in time to when Peter the Great was building a country of grandeur. In the early

18th century, Peter the Great continued the expansion set forth by his

predecessors, and fought a long war against the seasoned Swedish army. With the

final defeat of their army, Peter gained control of several small countries,

Latvia, Lithuania, Ingria and Estonia. Upon his return from the war the Russian

senate voted that he bear the title of the Great and Emperor, his acceptance of

the last title marked the official inauguration of the Russian Empire. Peter the

Great continued to fight wars in hopes of expanding Russia's borders and its

economy, regardless of cost, which eventually led to mistrust within the empire.

Russia was indeed a world power, influencing and controlling its neighbours.

Having built such a vast empire was only part of Peter's public appeal, he was a

very ruthless but enlightened leader, the kind that appealed to the Russian

people. In one of the bloodier cases, he had 1000 members of a coup d'йtat

assassinated, a punishment that he himself helped administer. Upon his death,

many school children were then raised to see Peter as a hero, and a model

leader. Perhaps then it is not so surprising that in the decades to follow, his

accepted ruthlessness would be passed down into the next generations of leaders,

this time having stricter doctrines within the regimes. As Karl Marx's ideas of

socialism spread across a desperate nation several men stepped forward to end

the oppression and starvation of their beloved country. The Russian revolution

in 1917 seemed to be a refreshing change compared to the imperialism of the old

regime and so countries such as Ukraine, Poland and Belarus joined willingly,

hoping to find guidance for their country. Regardless of the many positive

changes in the late 1920's, Joseph Stalin gained sole control of the Soviet

Union and was more or less as ruthless as Peter the great himself. He began

expanding and militarising the union, putting the state above each and every

man. In the Ukraine, profitable farms were condensed into collective farms

hoping to support industrialisation, and as a result there was a great famine

and an estimated 5 to 7 million Ukrainians died. Even in Ukraine's darker

period, because of their many natural resources, they were still considered very

important to the Soviet Empire, almost its backbone. The Ukraine was not the

only country to be used by the Soviets. Since the USSR spanned eight time zones,

the land occupied was enormous; in fact it was the largest in the world. With

such diverse landscapes there came many different natural resources which were

used to feed and house the population of the Soviet Union as well as push the

economy forward with its exports. The trees blanketing one-third of the Soviet

Union constituted more than one-quarter of the earth's forest cover,

subsequently making it one of the main exports, coming second only to the mining

industry. The mineral deposits and precious metals in the Ukrainian and Siberian

areas brought in the most revenue for the Soviets. Now it is quite evident that

one of the reasons that the USSR prospered was that upon its vast amount of land

were several different resources which they had every right to exploit, allowing

access to the whole of the union, rather than one single area within. As the

Soviet Union weakened, its last secretary general, Mikhail Gorbachev, decided

that it was time to end the socialist era in 1991.Many countries, who had relied

upon the omnipresent Soviet government for so long, were lost. New governments

were appointed in each new state, and so, the roller coaster began. At first it

seemed as if a great weight had been lifted from the minds of the people in

Eastern Europe, but it was soon apparent that a new accord would have to be

signed to protect the minorities within the neighbouring states and distribute

the Soviet armed forces, among other things. The newly elected Russian

president, Boris Yeltsin, the Ukrainian president, Leonid Kravchuk and the

Supreme Soviet Chairman, Stanislav Shushkevich, met in the secluded Minsk forest

in December of 1991 to discuss the terms for the new accord. However, as time

would later prove, there was a wide gulf in the understanding between the

"fathers" of the commonwealth. "Boris Yeltsin would manoeuvre for

Russian supremacy over the organisation. Leonid Kravchuk would insist on an

amicable separation between equal and sovereign independent states. Stanislav

Shushkevich would argue for Belarusian neutrality and a multinational,

"rule-of-international-law" organisation that would enable Belarus to

sow the first seeds of a separate national identity." Since these countries

had been linked so closely together for such a long time, they shared many

common bonds, some of which Russia was not ready to let go. When the accord was

created and the parties had all agreed to the terms, things appeared to be fine.

However, it took little time to realise that Russia was unsatisfied with the

direction in which things were heading and proceeded to place itself at the head

of the arena. Moscow was sick and tired of complying with the opinions of its

partners and decided to exercise the right of Big Brother to the CIS. They

continued on to forbid CIS members to pursue independent external policies.

Yeltsin called it "committing to their first priority, the CIS, and to

refrain from participation in unions or blocs against any or all of the

states." There is an actual clause stating that if any member of the CIS

forms an alliance outside the given states then they will be forced to withdraw

from the commonwealth, however, it is no surprise that clause does not apply,

nor will ever apply, to Russia. As stated in president Kravchuk's electoral

slogan, "Russia does not intend to develop its relations with CIS countries

on the basis of international law. (…) the further integration with the

Commonwealth is leading to the watering down of CIS countries sovereignty,

subordination of the interests to those of Russia, and the recreation of a

centralised superpower." We have seen that Russia has always had interests

in her neighbouring countries, sometimes turning violent, sometimes not, but

always causing tension. The many borders surrounding the largest country in the

world preoccupy its government for safety reasons. During the Soviet reign, and

most importantly during the cold war, the Soviet states surrounding Russia were

a security barrier, a guarantee the west wouldn't creep up to the Kremlin

unnoticed. However, there have been offers by NATO to several of the countries

of the CIS for membership, consequently enraging Russia, who does not want the

western organisation sitting on its doorstep. NATO argues that it is not

expanding to spite Russia and has even offered them a seat, which, was evidently

refused. Even though there is tension with the occident, North America is not

what preoccupies Yeltsin the most. With the bombings in Kosovo this past year,

we can see that Moscow's concerns fall mostly in Europe. Because of the Kosovo

bombings there have been threats by Moscow to form negative alliances with

Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Iran and China if there were to be a NATO enlargement«

L'expansion de l'OTAN qui montre sa dйtermination а dominer la planиte

pour les prochaines cinquante et une annйes obligera la Russie а

recrйer son propre potentiel militaire », йcrit Vladimir

Kouznetchevski, qui ajoute : « On ne peut arrкter cette expansion que par

la force.» However, an alliance of that kind would alienate them from the west,

as well as financial aid. Albeit Russia's current preoccupation with...

1-Bremmer, Ian, Russia's Total Security, World Policy Journal Volume XVI No.2
Summer 1999 2-Brzezkinski, Zbigniew- Sullivan, Paige, Russia and the
Commonwealth of Independent States- Documents, Data and Analysis, Library of
Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, New York, 1997, 855 pages 3-LE MONDE
DIPLOMATIQUE - Ukraine, une sociйtй bloquйe MAI 1998 - Page 8
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1998/05/PFLIMLIN/10467.html 4-LE MONDE
DIPLOMATIQUE - Tempкte politique en Russie JUIN 1999 - Page 10 http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1999/06/RADVANYI/12117.html
5-Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000, Interactive software, 1999 6-The National
Russia and Election 2000 September 6/13, 1999 http://www.thenation.com You should cite this paper as follows:

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