Russia: A part of Europe or apart from Europe?

International Affairs

Volumn 76, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 443-458

  Baranovsky, Vladimir ^a,b  

^a PRIMAKOV NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF WORLD ECONOMY AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS   (Russian Federation)

^b MGIMO UNIVERSITY   (Russian Federation)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0002774079     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-2346.00145     Document Type: Article

References (13)

1. For a comprehensive presentation of this argument, see Vladimir Kantor, 'Yest yevropeiskaya derzhava …'. Rossiya: trudniy put k tsivilizatsii (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1997).
2. One of the most prominent proponents of the idea of Russia's Asian connections as the core element of the country's identity was the historian, ethnograph and philosopher Lev Gumilev, widely known in Russian intellectual circles for elaborating the theory of ethnogenesis. See e.g. his Ot Rusi do Rossii (Moscow: Svarog i K, 1998).
3. See e.g. a recent article by Gavriil Popov, 'Russkiy holokost', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 26 April 2000, p. 8. Popov is a prominent politician of the 'first generation democrats' and a former mayor of Moscow.
4. See Alexei Arbatov, Bezopasnost: rossiyskiy vybor (Moscow: EPItsentr, 1999), pp. 194-200.
5. According to Nikolai Mikhailov, State Secretary in the Russian Ministry of Defence, the strategic goal of the United States in Kosovo consisted in creating a long-term pole of instability for Europe as the main American competitor. See 'Yugoslavia: god spustia posle agressii NATO v Kosovo', Kompas (ITAR-TASS), 7 March 2000. See also Dmitri Danilov, 'Eroziya structur evropeyskoy bezopasnosti', in Konflikt v Kosovo: noviy kontext formirovaniya rossiyskikh natsionalnykh interesov (Moscow: East-West Institute [Moscow Center]/IMEMO), June 1999, pp. 18-21.
6. According to Nikolai Mikhailov, State Secretary in the Russian Ministry of Defence, the strategic goal of the United States in Kosovo consisted in creating a long-term pole of instability for Europe as the main American competitor. See 'Yugoslavia: god spustia posle agressii NATO v Kosovo', Kompas (ITAR-TASS), 7 March 2000. See also Dmitri Danilov, 'Eroziya structur evropeyskoy bezopasnosti', in Konflikt v Kosovo: noviy kontext formirovaniya rossiyskikh natsionalnykh interesov (Moscow: East-West Institute [Moscow Center]/IMEMO), June 1999, pp. 18-21.
7. Comments substantiating this view include critical assessments of the US role in Kosovo made by some European political and military officials. See Nezavisimaya gazeta, 24 March 2000, p. 6.
8. Thus, at the very beginning of his career as Acting President, Putin spent almost three hours discussing the issue of Chechnya with Lord Russell-Johnston from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: quite remarkable for the head of state, especially in comparison to the ten minutes that Yeltsin had devoted to talks with Chirac and Schröder at the OSCE summit in Istanbul.
9. Putin refrained from over-reacting to the EU's position on Chechnya, adopted in December 1999 in Helsinki - although grounds could easily have been found for doing so. Similarly, the presidential administration damped the ardour of the State Duma when the idea of withdrawing from the Council of Europe was discussed.
10. See Viacheslav Nikonov, 'Chego zhdat', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 7 May 2000, p. 8.
11. This first comprehensive foreign and security policy document of the new administration was signed by Putin on 10 Jan. 2000.
12. Quoted from Putin's article on the eve of the year 2000 published on the Internet and then in Nezavisimaya gazeta, 30 Dec. 1999.
13. This theme was highlighted, in particular, during Putin's short visit to London, the first that he paid to the West in his capacity as head of state.