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Lack of Horizontal Ties among Regions Means Weakening of Vertical Ones between Them and Moscow Threa
Staunton, May 30 – “Russia is very poorly administered,” Avraam Shmulyevich
says. “Horizontal ties are practically non-existent, and vertical ones are very
poor.” As a result, such systems can last a long time but then disappear
overnight because any weakening of the vertical ties means there is little to
hold the country together. Because
of his expertise, Shmulyevich develops this point by discussing the Caucasus.
He suggests that “over the post-Soviet years, the Caucasus has been transformed
into an ordinary colony,” one that is costly and difficult for the center to
administer. Moscow lacks the skills to do so. As a result, it is “the source of
turbulence for the entire Russian Federation.”
“Mentally,” the analyst says, the North Caucasus has “already distanced itself
from Russia and Russia from it. Therefore, Moscow most likely in the coming years
will simply throw off it as ballast” holding Russia back much as the West
European colonial powers let their colonies go in the 1950s and 1960s. The
question arises, however, “will this be a good thing for the Caucasus and for
the world?” Could it take the form of normal nation states? Of dictatorships
like Chechnya already is? Or a region of Islamist terrorism and
radicalism? Or could it consist of all these things competing among
themselves and drawing in outside powers? According
to Shmulyevich, “the Circassians are the only people of the caucaus among whom
there is an ideological system that can serve as an alternative to Islam … the
ideology of Khabze.” But within the divided Circassian nation, that
ideology is now locked in a competition with Islamism. “Any
people which exists under a colonial yoke degrades,” the Israeli analyst says.
“The North Caucasus and all its peoples have lived in three empires” and as a
result various “unhealthy phenomena” have emerged. But these phenomena have not
completely destroyed the underlying cultures of these peoples. Many of
them have healthy elements within them, Shmulyevich says. One mustn’t
feel that everything is bad but rather work to help the health elements defeat
the unhealthy ones. “There are all kinds of possibilities to do this, and
that requires in the first instance to remember that the first source of all
the problems is that the Caucasus became a Russian colony.”
“Anti-colonial revolutions both in European colonies and in the Russian Empire
in the 19th and 20th centuries were headed by members of the intelligentsia and
businessmen who went to study and make careers and money in the metropolitan
center and abroad and then returned to their
Motherlands.” For
centuries, he continues, “the Caucasus peoples have suffered many catastrophes,
attacks and conquests. Russian colonial rule is only one of them.” Russia has
been and remains “a disintegrating factor,” and there is no reason to think
that the region will recover quickly or easily from its occupation. One may
certainly quibble with Shmulyevich about varius aspects of the situation in the
North Caucasus, but his insight on the relationship between vertical and
horizontal ties is fundamental and should become the basis of analysis of the
Russian situation not only by Western observers but by participants of all
kinds within the Russian Federation. Unless
Russia develops more horizontal ties among its regions, any weakening of the
vertical ones between the regions and the center will inevitably call the
territorial integrity of the country into question. Those who think that
vertical ties will be enough have been proved wrong before and are quite likely
to be proved wrong again. Добавить комментарий: |
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