Eurasianism and the Concept of Central Caucaso-Asia

Rethinking Central Eurasia 27
paradigm in contemporary Russian policy. 38 The Russian-Georgian war and
its consequences 39 provide justifiable reasons to believe that Putin’s advent to
power meant also the beginning of a neo-imperial era in Russia, 40 with the
war itself being nothing but a step toward the restoration of the U.S.S.R., 41 at
least in some new form. 42 Nevertheless, some experts think that Putin’s aim
is not to restore the Soviet Union, but to restore Russia’s influence in the
post-Soviet expanse. 43 Whatever the case, the war in Georgia entirely fits the
interests of present-day Russia, 44 for no country, apart from Nicaragua,
supported Moscow’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as
independent states. 45 Consequently, Moscow’s desire to give Russia the status
of an “independent pole” in a multipolar world and to raise its appeal for the
post-Soviet countries 46 was not realized.
First during the Gorbachev and, later, the Yeltsin era the impression was that
the Cold War had come to an end and that the new Russia had irreversibly
chosen the track of cooperation with the civilized world, along with
democratic changes and transition to a market economy. Yet the Russian
aggression against Georgia in August 2008 made it clear that the end of the
Cold War was not a reality but, rather, the West’s dream, an illusion the
38 David Kerr, “The New Eurasianism: The Rise of Geopolitics in Russia's Foreign
Policy,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 47, No. 6 (1995), pp. 977-988.
39 Vladimer Papava, “Russia: Being in the Kremlin Means Never Letting Go,” Eurasia
Insight. Eurasianet, November 5, 2008, .
40 Ronald D. Asmus, “How the West Botched Georgia,” The New Republic, August 12,
2008, .
41 John O’Sullivan, “Is Russia Morphing Into Another USSR?” Globe and Mail, August
12, 2008, .
42 Paul Goble, “What the Georgian Events Demonstrate,” Window on Eurasia, August
10, 2008, .
43 Friedman, “The Russo-Georgian War.”
44 Svante E. Cornell, “The War that Russia Wants,” The Guardian, August 8, 2008,
.
45 Emil Pain, “Gruzino-rossiyskiy vooruzhennyy konflikt: ostraia forma otravleniia
imperskimi illiuziiami” [The Georgian-Russian Conflict: Acute Form of
Contamination by Imperial Illusions], Vestnik Instituta Kennana v Rossii [Bulletin of
the Kennan Institute in Russia], Iss. 14 (2008), p. 39.
46 Tomislava Penkova, “Russia’s Attitude Towards the Post-Soviet Space after the
War in Georgia,” ISPI Policy Brief, Iss. 111, December (2008), .