Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

It’s over a week old, but I’ve just discovered an intriguing article on Michael Averko’s blog.  In a wide ranging discussion about disputed territories in Europe Averko drops in a snippet about the functionally independent Pridnistrovie region (also known as Transnistria or Transdniestria), which is widely recognised internationally as part of Moldova. Apparently opponents of President Yanukovych are keen to foster the idea that a surreptitious agreement has been struck, between Kiev and Moscow, to absorb Pridnistrovie into Ukraine.  It's new to me, but it certainly fits the favoured narrative of a resurgent Russia, seeking to win back, territory by territory, its Soviet sphere of influence. Averko points out glaring inconsistencies in a theory which is almost certainly designed to smear Yanukovych.  Neither Russia nor Ukraine support Pridistrovian independence and  Moscow has already knocked back a suggestion, popularly endorsed by referendum in the terri...

In an essay considering the chances of successful reconciliation between Russia and Georgia, Ivan Sukhov keeps his most interesting contention for the final paragraph. “Georgia, like most post-Soviet nations, is a country where the concept of nationality is crucial. A national agenda for Georgians is barely compatible with the thesis of a Georgia for everyone (i.e. for Georgians, Abkhazians, Ossetians, and for all other citizens regardless of their ethnicity). This is not a problem specific to Georgia. It is characteristic of almost all the post-Soviet nations, including Russia itself in many ways.” It is useful to read Sukhov’s piece in conjunction with a further Open Democracy article , which examines another post-Soviet state struggling to come to terms with ethnic division, Moldova. Transdniestria, Moldova’s own breakaway region, shares characteristics with South Ossetia. Although as Andrey Kalikh observes, the chances that serious violence will develop there remain slim. Howev...