Borders in PostSocialist Eurasia Problems and Perspectives Dmitry

Borders in Post-Socialist Eurasia: Problems and Perspectives Dmitry Zimin

Legal foundations: self-determination versus territorial integrity • The Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Helsinki, 1975. It declared “inviolability of frontiers in Europe” • Referendum in the USSR on 17 March 1991: 76% voted to preserve the USSR as a renewed federation. (The Baltic states, Georgia, Armenia and Moldova did not vote. ) • “Belovezhie” Agreement on dissolution of the USSR, 8 December, 1991 • Declarations of independence

Disintegration of the USSR: • 15 Soviet Republics have become independent states; • Russia has become the legal successor-state to the Soviet Union (to its obligations, debts and assets); • Administrative boundaries have become state borders; • New borders do not adequately reflect ethnocultural and historical realities.

Main events to the West from the USSR: • • Re-unification of Germany, 1990; Break-up of Czechoslovakia, 1993; Break-up of Yugoslavia, 1990 EU enlargement: 1995 -2004

Secondary break-ups: • Transdnistria’s cessation from Moldova; • Abkhasia’s and Ossetia’s cessation from Georgia; • Montenegro’s and Kosovo’s cessation from Serbia; • Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno. Karabakh; • Attempts to gain independence in Chechnya.

Territorial disputes: • Estonia - Russia: Ivangorod and Pechory district (there is still no border treaty); • Latvia - Russia: Pytalovo district; • China - Russia: islands on Amur river; • Japan - Russia: South Kurile islands; • Russia - Norway: fishing rights in Spitsbergen waters + a disputed area in the Barents Sea; • Russia - Ukraine: Crimean peninsular.

Re-integrative initiatives: • Union of Russia and Belarus; • Eurasian Economic Community (EEC): Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan; • Customs Union of EEC: Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan + several countries applied; • Free Trade Zone of the Commonwealth of Independent States: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan; • Collective Security Treaty Organization (known as ODKB): Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia; • Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Russia, China and four Central Asian states (excl. Turkmenistan).

Conclusions: • Conflicting trends in Eurasia: further disintegration versus re-integration; • Competition of key centers of geopolitical gravitation: EU, Russia, Turkey, China, “New Islamic Caliphate” + the United States; • Instability of post-Soviet states; possibility of new break-ups; • Alternative re-interpretations of history stimulate separatist movements and new alternative nation-building projects.