It would be foolish for Western governments to count on changes in Russia’s position on NATO enlargement and force disposition in the foreseeable future, regardless of whether Putin remains in office. It would likewise be foolish for Moscow to count on brinkmanship and intimidation to keep NATO from reinforcing its eastern flank under current circumstance. Nonetheless, it is incumbent upon Western and Russian leaders to make what is now a dangerous and unstable military standoff less unstable and less dangerous. Doing so is in the interest of both sides, and it is also the most likely path toward a gradual improvement in political relations. Continue reading
Category Archives: Moldova
Ukraine: Lessons learned from other “frozen conflicts” in the Soviet successor states
[The following is an expanded version of a talk I gave at the VoxUkraine Club, Kyiv, October 23.]
SUMMARY
Four constants
- None of the conflicts has been resolved peacefully
- Each “parent state” has lost all de facto sovereignty over the breakaway region
- In no case has the international community been successful in mediating a political settlement
- In no case has there been significant repatriation of internally displaced persons
Three variables that don’t vary much
- All the breakaway regions are doing poorly economically, with some variation
- All the breakaway states are dependent on external patron states, with some variation
- All the breakaway states have a “stateness” problem, with some variation
Four importantly varying variables
- The “resolution” of the Chechen case
- The cultural-political distance between the contending parties
- Public determination in the parent state to retake the lost territories
- The extent of cooperation between the parent state and the breakaway state
Transnistria: A bridge too far for the Kremlin?
While the Kremlin’s long-term objective in Ukraine has been, and remains, the country’s integration into a Russian-dominated Eurasian Union, my guess is that its endgame in the current crisis is the establishment of a breakaway region in the east modeled on Transnistria in Moldova. Continue reading
Eurasian Geopolitics 