Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire

MAP 3: Distribution of Russian speakers and disputed territories across the Caucasus. Map drawn by Giedrė Tamašauskaitė

There are also important distinctions in the way Russian reimperialization efforts have been pursued in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. Since the Transnistrian conflict of 1991 until the annexation of Crimea in 2014, there have been notable changes in Russia, its leadership, and its policies, as well as in the geopolitical context of Europe—all of which have colored the developments in the countries concerned. Russia’s participation in the Transnistrian conflict was partly a reflex response of the old Soviet empire (and Soviet troops on the ground) to a (from their point of view) advantageous course of events. The Russo-Georgian war of 2008 was a successful trial experiment in reimperialization by Putin’s regime, in no small part because it garnered little response from the West. Crimea’s annexation and the war in eastern Ukraine appear as a culmination of these measures that have been methodically and systematically pursued by the Kremlin since the 2000s. In all three countries—in Moldova’s Transnistria, in Georgia’s South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and in Ukraine’s Crimea and eastern territories—Moscow has consistently evoked the protection of Russian compatriots as reasons for its involvement and military operations. Before outlining Russia’s policy in the three states, however, it is helpful to place them geographically (see Maps 2 and 3) and start with a brief overview of their Russian compatriot populations, their historical ties to Russia, and the background to conflict.

BACKGROUND TO CONFLICT

Georgia

The populations of Russian speakers and so-called Russian compatriots of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine could not be more different, particularly because of differences in their ethnicities. Indeed in the case of Georgia and Moldova it is surprising that Moscow would conceptualize those populations as compatriots. Georgia’s South Ossetians, numbering only fifty thousand, have little to do with Russia ethnically, culturally, or linguistically. Ossetians are descendants of the Alans, warrior tribes speaking a language akin to Persian, who have lived here since the early medieval period.⁵ For hundreds of years, South Ossetians and Georgians lived in harmony, and most Ossetians spoke Georgian in addition to Ossetian. Their recent affinity with Russia can be explained by their geographical proximity to North Ossetia (also inhabited by Ossetians), which is part of the Russian Federation. The Georgians, Abkhazians, and Ossetians also share a common Orthodox Christian faith with Russia. Like the Ossetians, Georgia’s Abkhazians are also a distinct ethnic group, now numbering just a few hundred thousand. In the eighth century, they formed a Christian kingdom with close ties to either united Georgia or the Georgian Principality until they came under Ottoman rule and then that of the tsarist Empire. During the nineteenth century, the tsarist regime carried out an ethnic cleansing policy along the northeast shore of the Black Sea and the North Caucasus, which resulted in the annihilation of around 1.5 million locals and the expulsion from the region of a similar number of indigenous Abkhazians, Circassians, and Muslim tribes.⁶ Subsequently, Russians, Armenians, Greeks, and Georgians colonized the region.⁷ The Georgian-born Stalin pursued aggressive Georgianization policies in Abkhazia, which was the turning point that forever spoiled Abkhaz-Georgian relations. Instead, Abkhazians increasingly looked to Moscow for support.⁸

Moldova