“Establishment of the Federal Agency for CIS Affairs is a ripe and necessary thing. It is astonishing that the Russian government was so slow in doing so,” a political analyst, member of the Union of Orthodox Citizens in Moldova and Transdnestr Vladimir Bukarsky said today to a REGNUM correspondent.
“Let’s start with the fact that the territory of the CIS and the whole post-Soviet space is a territory of Russia’s priority interests,” the expert continued.“Substantial part of the territory was initially Russian and was alienated from Russia due to the antinational policy of the Bolsheviks starting from Lenin and finishing by Gorbachev, as well as KPSS officials, who mutated into democrats or local princelets. The CIS territory is a space where over 30 mn Russian compatriots live, being cut away from Russia contrary to their will. It is a territory, where peoples live whose historical and spiritual fate is closely connected to Russia and who did not lose the connection even after the single country collapsed. It is a territory where dozens of millions members of mixed families or families, whose relatives are working in Russia. Finally, it is a territory united by parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church, the only social institution that managed to maintain its integrity after the country was divided.”
According to Bukarsky, debates on what priority Russia should choose in its foreign policy, are still active. “One must be a realist: Russia will hardly restore the status of a world superpower within next few decades, which was the USSR. However, Russia can preserve the status of a regional leader in the post-Soviet territory. That is why the CIS space must be a number one priority in Russia’s policy. If Russia loses its status of the leader in the region, if it is forced out from Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, from the banks of Danube and the Black Sea coast, from Transcaucasia and Central Asia, it would disintegrate very soon into a number of principalities and cease its existence. The CIS is a warrant of Russia’s sovereignty. Thus, there is no price one cannot afford for preserving Russia’s leadership in the post-Soviet territory. All other issues are secondary,” the analyst concluded.
As REGNUM reported before, on May 12, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the structure of a new Russian government. In particular, he declared that a new federal agency for CIS affairs would be established.
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