Eurasianism and the Concept of Central Caucaso-Asia

Rethinking Central Eurasia 41
Westernism, “The End of Eurasia.” 115 The conception of the emergence of
Russia as the new West is based on two factors: the country’s openness to the
outside world and the development of Russian capitalism. These are slowly
but dramatically changing Russian society, and as a result of this Russia
could become a Western, but not European, country. 116 It is obvious that
these two factors cannot yet determine Russia’s possible Westernization.
This was more acutely manifested in Russia’s military actions against
Georgia in August 2008. It is understandable that Western experts are
reluctant to concede that they were wrong in believing that the
Westernization process that Russia started to undergo in the 1990s had, more
or less, strong roots. 117 The start of the Westernization process in Yeltsin’s
Russia was primarily caused by the political and economic weakness of the
Russian state at that time, which justified its need for Western political and
financial help. Putin’s politically and economically stronger Russia, on the
other hand, no longer had any reason to pretend to comply with Western
values. 118 Furthermore, the concept of the Westernization of Russia makes
little sense in the light of Russia’s invasion of Georgia, which demonstrated
to the West Russia’s disregard of Georgia’s pro-Western orientation, its
rejection of the possibility of reducing Europe’s energy dependency on
Russia, and its lack of respect for world order. 119 At this point, it should be
kept in mind that with respect to Europe, Eurasianism served two strategic
goals for Moscow: turning Europe into an appendage of the Russian sphere of
influence and weakening Euro-Atlanticism by harming Europe’s ties with
the U.S. 120
It is interesting to note that the above-mentioned Expansionists qualify the
Civilizationists (in other words, contemporary Russian communists and
115 Dmitri Trenin, The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and
Globalization (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002).
116 Trenin, Integratsiia i identichnost.
117 For example, Michael Hirsh, “Pushing Russia’s Buttons,” Newsweek, August 12,
2008, .
118 For example, Asmus, “How the West Botched Georgia.”
119 Petersen, “Russia Invaded Georgia to Teach the West a Lesson.”
120 Bugajski, Expanding Eurasia, p. 1.