On December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords, disbanding the USSR and forming the CIS. Two and a half weeks later, eight more republics joined the new agreement. The participants at a round-table conference entitled “The South Caucasus and new tendencies in the transformation of post-Soviet space”, organized by the MSU History Faculty, Vestnik Kavkaza and the North-South Politological Center, have discussed the lessons of the past decades, the disintegration of the “empire”, conflicts on the post-USSR territories and other problems.
Lev Dzugayev, a Candidate of Philosophy, opined that Russian humanitarian sciences of the 19th century succeeded due to studies of the Caucasus: “As a result of the professional and respectful treatment of the subject demonstrated by Russian scientists of that time, we have amazing examples when Russian scientists were becoming authors of alphabets, the first researchers of mythological systems, eposes of Caucasus peoples, it helped form links, without which there would have been no consolidated state then.”
Dzugayev is cautious about evaluations made by officials of humanitarian and social sciences of processes in post-Soviet space, especially in the Caucasus.
Iran, Turkey, the U.S. and the EU touch upon problems of the Greater Caucasus today, not just Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia and new countries, the partially-unrecognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It is an absolutely different distribution of players with different potentials, different opportunities for influence, political and economic. It sets a new rhythm for the processes happening here,” Dzugayev assures.
In his opinion, Russia needs to decide whether to react or take preventive measures and what strategy it will have to protect its interests.
Dzugayev believes that the formation of the Eurasian Union will have a great impact on the Caucasus: “Armenia made a turn after many years of active cooperation with European colleagues, expressing willingness to join the Eurasian and the Customs unions. But there are impartial reasons for that. On January 1, 2015, a totally new regime is starting to function, including on the border between countries formed after disintegration of the USSR. If we look at the demographic dynamics of the last years, migration remains a serious problem for Armenia. How to use labour resources? Where do people becoming employable find use for their knowledge? The growth of ethnic diasporas beyond our state formations is a completely different topic in the context of the appearance and launch of the Eurasian Union.”
According to the expert, it is a serious topic for Azerbaijan. The republic has been trying to form its policy distancing itself from the world political centers. He associates the speech of the Azerbaijani president at the summit of the five Caspian leaders with this policy. Dzugayev reminded that Azerbaijan and NATO had been discussing joint protection of pipelines some time ago.
He points out that relations between Russia and Georgia, improving since 2008, may be under question in the context of Georgia signing the EU Association Agreement: “It concerns implementation of the visa-free regime and a whole set of other issues associated with functioning of the Eurasian Union or related agreements between Georgia with the EU. These issues are subjects of serious concerns for other players too,” Dzugayev explains.
The expert noted the realization of the project of Raffi Ovanesyan (he got 36.74% of the votes in the presidential polls of 2013). “Ovanesyan is a U.S. citizen. Experts speculate whether it is a project similar to the “Mishiko project,” meaning Mikheil Saakashvili, or if it is an invention of certain public forces within Armenia, which is the basis of the complementary and multi-vector policy that the Armenian authorities have been trying to pursue in these years.”
Dzugayev is confident that developments will depend on the readiness of Russia to concentrate intellectual and other resources on shifting to a regime of a long-term strategy in the Caucasus.
Says Lev DzugayevOn December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords, disbanding the USSR and forming the CIS. Two and a half weeks later, eight more republics joined the new agreement. The participants at a round-table conference entitled “The South Caucasus and new tendencies in the transformation of post-Soviet space”, organized by the MSU History Faculty, Vestnik Kavkaza and the North-South Politological Center, have discussed the lessons of the past decades, the disintegration of the “empire”, conflicts on the post-USSR territories and other problems.Lev Dzugayev, a Candidate of Philosophy, opined that Russian humanitarian sciences of the 19th century succeeded due to studies of the Caucasus: “As a result of the professional and respectful treatment of the subject demonstrated by Russian scientists of that time, we have amazing examples when Russian scientists were becoming authors of alphabets, the first researchers of mythological systems, eposes of Caucasus peoples, it helped form links, without which there would have been no consolidated state then.”Dzugayev is cautious about evaluations made by officials of humanitarian and social sciences of processes in post-Soviet space, especially in the Caucasus.Iran, Turkey, the U.S. and the EU touch upon problems of the Greater Caucasus today, not just Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia and new countries, the partially-unrecognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It is an absolutely different distribution of players with different potentials, different opportunities for influence, political and economic. It sets a new rhythm for the processes happening here,” Dzugayev assures.In his opinion, Russia needs to decide whether to react or take preventive measures and what strategy it will have to protect its interests.Dzugayev believes that the formation of the Eurasian Union will have a great impact on the Caucasus: “Armenia made a turn after many years of active cooperation with European colleagues, expressing willingness to join the Eurasian and the Customs unions. But there are impartial reasons for that. On January 1, 2015, a totally new regime is starting to function, including on the border between countries formed after disintegration of the USSR. If we look at the demographic dynamics of the last years, migration remains a serious problem for Armenia. How to use labour resources? Where do people becoming employable find use for their knowledge? The growth of ethnic diasporas beyond our state formations is a completely different topic in the context of the appearance and launch of the Eurasian Union.”According to the expert, it is a serious topic for Azerbaijan. The republic has been trying to form its policy distancing itself from the world political centers. He associates the speech of the Azerbaijani president at the summit of the five Caspian leaders with this policy. Dzugayev reminded that Azerbaijan and NATO had been discussing joint protection of pipelines some time ago.He points out that relations between Russia and Georgia, improving since 2008, may be under question in the context of Georgia signing the EU Association Agreement: “It concerns implementation of the visa-free regime and a whole set of other issues associated with functioning of the Eurasian Union or related agreements between Georgia with the EU. These issues are subjects of serious concerns for other players too,” Dzugayev explains.The expert noted the realization of the project of Raffi Ovanesyan (he got 36.74% of the votes in the presidential polls of 2013). “Ovanesyan is a U.S. citizen. Experts speculate whether it is a project similar to the “Mishiko project,” meaning Mikheil Saakashvili, or if it is an invention of certain public forces within Armenia, which is the basis of the complementary and multi-vector policy that the Armenian authorities have been trying to pursue in these years.”Dzugayev is confident that developments will depend on the readiness of Russia to concentrate intellectual and other resources on shifting to a regime of a long-term strategy in the Cauca
