RUSSIAN GEOPOLITICAL AND GEOECONOMIC PROJECTS AS AN TOOL FOR THE REINTEGRATION OF THE COUNTRIES OF THE POST-TROUID AREA

Abstract

Despite the fact that after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States on its ruins, most of the former Soviet republics considered the CIS a means of achieving national independence and strengthening statehood, the Russian Federation, on the other hand, saw the Commonwealth as a transitional stage on the way to the reintegration of the post-Soviet space. However, despite Russian expectations, the CIS was unable to fulfill the function of a kind of bridge on the way to the creation of “USSR 2.0”. Therefore, the Kremlin resorted to the creation of the Eurasian Economic Community and other integration associations, which, according to its initiators, were to become a transitional model on the way to the implementation of a new imperial project under Russian supremacy.

Methods. The main methodological approaches to studying the Russian Federation's policy in the post-Soviet space were historical, political science and geopolitical. It is the latter that considers the Russian Federation's policy in the post-Soviet space as an attempt to restore the geopolitical and geoeconomic influence of the Russian Federation through integration projects, the key instrument of which is Russian economic expansion.

Results. The author of the article analyzed the Russian Federation's policy on the reintegration of post-Soviet countries through projects such as the EurAsEC, the Customs Union and the Single Economic Space, designed to promote the revival of a new version of the Russian empire. It was found that the EurAsEC became a kind of tool for Russian integration policy in preparing to ensure the expansion of influence on the countries of the post-Soviet space. With the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union, it became obvious that it was the EurAsEC that played the role of a transitional integration institute for a decade and a half within the framework of the doctrine of "different-speed" integration of post-Soviet countries. Another supranational project was the Customs Union, which is designed to ensure the implementation of Russia's strategy to create a single economic space within the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. It has been proven that the goal of all geopolitical and geoeconomic integration projects of the Russian Federation in the Eurasian space was Moscow's dominance, which aims to restore the Russian imperial project. The main obstacle to the restoration of the Russian empire was Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic policy.

Conclusions. The author believes that all the projects proposed by the Russian authorities after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 have one goal - the reintegration of the former Soviet republics into the Russian Federation. Unable to convince the leaders of the post-Soviet countries of the ability of the CIS to fulfill the mission of restoring the Soviet Union, the Kremlin authorities resorted to proposing the implementation of projects such as the EurAsEC, the SES, the Customs and Eurasian Economic Unions. All of them were supposed to ensure the geopolitical and geoeconomic dominance of the Russian Federation on the way to the creation of a new Russian empire. However, the implementation of the Russian Federation's geostrategy was hindered by Ukraine's policy aimed at integration into the EU and NATO, and, accordingly, at distancing itself from the Russian Federation and leaving its field of influence. This inevitably led to an attempt by Moscow to forcefully convert Ukraine to an imperial project, as was clearly demonstrated by the armed aggression unleashed by Russian President Putin against Ukraine in 2014, which continues to this day. After all, the Russian dictator is firmly convinced that a new Russian empire is impossible without the absorption of Ukraine.

Keywords: post-Soviet countries, geopolitical space, politics, geoeconomics, integration projects, "gas" wars, Russian imperial ambitions, Eurasian Economic Community, Customs Union