The Politics of Russian 'Diaspora': From Compatriots to a Russian World (original) (raw)
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Russia and Post-Soviet “Russian Diaspora”: Contrasting Visions, Conflicting Projects
Russia’s attitudes toward millions of Russophones in the newly independent states (NIS) have been noted, since 1991, for their ambivalence. The concept of a “Russian diaspora” has been pursued as an ethno-selective ideological project. On the practical-political level, however, Russian authorities were obliged to rest upon a loose notion of “compatriots”. In this article, “virtual diasporization” is juxtaposed with Russophones’ identities and behavior, to substantiate the point that these populations do not possess the “diasporic” features ascribed to them. Moreover, official Russian policies have failed to evoke any “diasporic” sentiment within Russophones toward their putative “homeland”. I argue that, to be more realistic and responsive, these policies should be more sensitive to commonalities and zones of common interest between Russophones and the titular populations of the NIS.
It traces the evolution of the diaspora policies and visions from the early 1990s to the present, and argues that the understanding of Russian “compatriots abroad” has never been the same; rather, it travelled a long road from revanchist irredentism of the red-brown opposition in the 1990s, to the moderately liberal pragmatism of the early 2000s, to the confrontational instrumentalization of Russian “compatriots” as a lever of Russia’s soft power in the late 2000s, and, finally, back to the even more confrontational, irredentist and isolationist visions after the Ukrainian crisis of 2014. Russian: http://www.ifri.org/ru/publications/notes-de-lifri/russieneivisions/russkiy-mir-politika-rossii-v-otnoshenii#sthash.mW1pxjE2.dpbs English: https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/suslov\_russian\_world\_2017.pdf French: http://www.ifri.org/fr/publications/notes-de-lifri/russieneivisions/monde-russe-politique-de-russie-envers-diaspora#sthash.zhe7OLbB.dpbs
Russian Diaspora as a Means of Russian Foreign Policy
Military review, 2018
After the Soviet Union collapsed about 25 million ethnic Russians and Russian speakers that were located in former Soviet Republics during the Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia for various reasons, mainly for imperial ones, gained minority status in one night. Russian Diaspora living as minorities abroad out of Russian Federation especially in former Soviet Republics was regarded as a means of Russian foreign policy to reestablish Russian influence over the region. The main aim of this study is to evaluate how the Russian Diaspora became a tool for Russian foreign policy from historical perspective. This study emphasizes the activities conducted related to Russian Diaspora and the increased importance of Russian Diaspora in Russian foreign policy during Putin’s term. This study is also of high importance since it deals with the relationship between soft power politics Russia mentioned among her current foreign policy concepts and Russian Diaspora.
Operationalization of a Unique Russia Diaspora in Eastern Ukraine, 2018
Russian President Putin and his political-military apparatus have determined that the active and deliberate engagement with a hypersensitive Russian diaspora living in Eastern Ukraine can be adequately harnessed and operationalized through an entire spectrum of vehicles to include the Russian military, the Russian Orthodox Church, and a state-controlled media machine. These three elements have served as the vanguard of a new Russian experiment. This resourced and directed campaign utilizes a variety of active and resourced mediums, cultural and historical connections, and sensationalized political chaos to target and connect with a sizeable Russian diaspora in an attempt to create an alternative to a perceived Western, European Union, and NATO empire. In the end, Russian leadership surmises that its engineered scheme to actively support Russian diaspora will help restore Russian prominence in a new multi-polar world and present a Russian government with a logical and defendable vehicle for both foreign influence propagation and national consolidation.
The Russian Diaspora in Central Asia: Russian Compatriots and Moscow's Foreign Policy
Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 2006
This article examines how Russians and the Russian government have conceptualized their compatriots living in Central Asia, examines the circumstances surrounding Russian immigration to and emigration from the region, discusses the role played by the Russian diaspora in Russian foreign policy and Central Asian politics, and outlines the Putin administration's approach to Russian compatriots abroad. President Putin has devoted considerable attention to promoting and defending the interests of Russian compatriots in Central Asia, and Russian foreign policy is slowly changing to utilize soft power more effectively in achieving Russia's goals in the near abroad. Russia's nationalist movement actively lobbies for greater attention to the diaspora in Russian foreign policy. A surge of patriotism resulting from terrorist attacks and the Chechnya conflict heightens Russians' sense of identity and could lead to greater pressures to "defend" Russians abroad. The Russian diaspora is now more important symbolically than it was under Yeltsin, yet traditional political and security considerations, a vigorous energy diplomacy, and participation in emerging regional organizations overshadow Russia's compatriots abroad as factors in Moscow's Central Asia policy.
Russian national identity: old traumas and new challenges
Published in S. Smyth & C. Opitz (Eds.), Negotiating Linguistic, Cultural and Social Identities in the Post-Soviet World (pp. 87-108). Oxford, UK, Bern, etc.: Peter Lang, 2013. The Chapter analyzes difficulties associated with the academic analysis, socio-political and everyday connotations of Russian national identity, focusing on transformations and challenges it has faced since the end of the Soviet Union. It problematizes Russian national identity as the creation of political and cultural elites, which often failed to engage the masses in a corresponding movement of national revival. The perspective adopted is that of historical phenomenology: Russian national identity is perceived as a dynamic construct shaped by a diachronic historical perspective on the one hand, and a synchronic geopolitical perspective on the other. The Chapter presents a descriptive case study to address the question of what exactly are the main components of Russian national identity and how they structure ethno-national perceptions at the elite and mass levels of society. The conclusions focus on the underdevelopment and amorphousness of the Russian national character, and explain why it has been problematic to situate Russian national identity in an unambiguously defined state-bearing nation or ethnicity.
Przegląd Politologiczny
The article analyzes the role of the Russian diaspora in the policy of the Russian Federation authorities during Russia’s war in Ukraine. The author analyzes the mechanisms of centralization, consolidation and instrumentalization of organizations of so-called compatriots outside Russia, in the area of Central and Southeast Asia. The process of institutionalization of the diaspora and the creation of a coherent system of economic, cultural and repatriation policy management by the central authorities of the Russian Federation are critically analyzed. Russia, working with the diaspora, is extremely effective in exploiting the potential of its human capital, which, according to UN reports, is estimated at 11 million people, the second largest diaspora in the world after the Indian diaspora.