Russia reinstated

By Sachin Jose

    Ever since the tensions of the Cold War thawed in the 1990s, Russia seemed to be a Steppe Mammoth, hibernating in the Siberian permafrost. Unaware of the power it possessed, the former superpower remained subservient to the unipolar West.

    Though shattered with the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russia is still the largest country in the world by area and the eighth largest economy. It is one of the five recognised nuclear weapons states and also inherited the second largest stockpile of nuclear warheads from its predecessor Soviet Union, amounting to 1,800 behind 2,150 of USA.

    With its move against Ukraine, Russia has proved that it is no longer a regional hegemony, but a potential superpower recuperating from its ashes. This phenomenon started in 2008, when Russia annexed Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia.

    Historically, these were parts of Russia as were Crimea and Sevastopol, both of which are being disputed by the West. The erstwhile Russian Empire fought the Ottoman Turks for the possession of the Crimean Peninsula and its bastion Sevastopol as early as in 1853. 

    Russians realise that it is was a folly on the part of Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev to transfer the peninsula to Ukraine as a friendly gesture in 1954.  All Russia did is take back something that belonged to it once. It was a battle unstained by blood unlike the gory wars of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), which ravaged Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

   Moscow kept quiet when NATO stretched its arms towards Eastern Europe consisting of the Baltic (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Balkan (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) and Slavic (Belarus, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) states, until it reached Ukraine - the Russian threshold.

    Russian President Vladmir Putin intends to create a Russosphere where the Kremlin believes to have its sphere of influence. These include the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) that were part of the Soviet Union.

   The recent sanctions by the West on Russia is seen as a boomerang assault, as much of Europe is dependent on Russian oil and natural gas. Expulsion from the G8 will bring Russia closer to BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). 

   Moscow focuses on the Eurasian Economic Community consisting of major CIS nations, to counterbalance the economic influence of the European Union, while the Shanghai Corporation Organisation consisting China and Central Asia is a strategic deterrent to NATO threats.

   Kremlin can win allies globally by exploiting its energy resources rather than military might. It has the geopolitical advantage of being an indispensable part of Eurasia as well as the Asia-Pacific. Russia needs to pioneer in creating a new world order with multipolar dimensions.