Borders in Post-Socialist Eurasia: Problems and

Perspectives

Dmitry Zimin

Legal foundations:self-determination versus

territorial integrity• The Final Act of the Conference on Security and

Cooperation in Europe, Helsinki, 1975. It declared “inviolability of frontiers in Europe”

• Referendum in the USSR on 17 March 1991: 76% voted to preserve the USSR as a renewed federation. (The Baltic states, Georgia, Armenia and Moldova did not vote.)

• “Belovezhie” Agreement on dissolution of the USSR, 8 December, 1991

• Declarations of independence

Disintegration of the USSR:

• 15 Soviet Republics have become independent states;

• Russia has become the legal successor-state to the Soviet Union (to its obligations, debts and assets);

• Administrative boundaries have become state borders;

• New borders do not adequately reflect ethno-cultural and historical realities.

Main events to the West from the USSR:

• Re-unification of Germany, 1990;

• Break-up of Czechoslovakia, 1993;

• Break-up of Yugoslavia, 1990

• EU enlargement: 1995-2004

Secondary break-ups:

• Transdnistria’s cessation from Moldova;• Abkhasia’s and Ossetia’s cessation from

Georgia;• Montenegro’s and Kosovo’s cessation from

Serbia;• Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-

Karabakh;• Attempts to gain independence in

Chechnya.

Territorial disputes:

• Estonia - Russia: Ivangorod and Pechory district (there is still no border treaty);

• Latvia - Russia: Pytalovo district;

• China - Russia: islands on Amur river;

• Japan - Russia: South Kurile islands;

• Russia - Norway: fishing rights in Spitsbergen waters + a disputed area in the Barents Sea;

• Russia - Ukraine: Crimean peninsular.

Re-integrative initiatives:• Union of Russia and Belarus;

• Eurasian Economic Community (EEC): Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan;

• Customs Union of EEC: Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan + several countries applied;

• Free Trade Zone of the Commonwealth of Independent States: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan;

• Collective Security Treaty Organization (known as ODKB): Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia;

• Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Russia, China and four Central Asian states (excl. Turkmenistan).

Conclusions:• Conflicting trends in Eurasia: further

disintegration versus re-integration;• Competition of key centers of geopolitical

gravitation: EU, Russia, Turkey, China, “New Islamic Caliphate” + the United States;

• Instability of post-Soviet states; possibility of new break-ups;

• Alternative re-interpretations of history stimulate separatist movements and new alternative nation-building projects.