The collapse of the USSR led to colossal geopolitical losses for Russia. Along with the growing backlog in Russian economy, unfavorable and weakening military potential, this creates a number of potential geopolitical threats, which include: the growth of Islamic fundamentalism on the southern borders, the expansion of NATO and the EU from the West, the growing power of the Asia-Pacific region.
Russia's geopolitical position in last years changed significantly due to the complication of its relations with NATO. Thus, the former allies of the USSR under the Warsaw Pact (and in the future - a number of other countries) are included in this bloc. Thus, the NATO bloc, as it were, begins to move eastward, towards the former borders of the USSR. Russia was worried about the possibility of deploying nuclear and other types of weapons on the territory of future NATO members. After long and difficult negotiations, a special agreement was reached between NATO and Russia, defining peaceful relations Russia and NATO in the XXI century. and a number of CIS countries have concluded a Partnership for Peace agreement with NATO. At present, Russia's relations with NATO are beginning to improve, and in the future, Russia, if its positions are taken into account, may itself join NATO.
Several important agreements have been concluded between Russia and the countries of the European Union (especially with, and), with international and European financial organizations.
In 1998, Russia joined the countries of the Asia-Pacific Cooperation (it now includes 21 countries, including major states Asia-Pacific zone: China, Japan, Canada, etc.). This strengthens the economic and geopolitical positions of our country in the East. Russia will supply gas and electricity to China, build a nuclear power plant in China; will supply electricity and gas. Japan will participate in offshore oil development and in almost 40 joint projects with Russia. IN Lately Russia's economic ties with The joint Russian-Vietnamese company for oil production on the shelf of Vietnam is expanding. At the same time, with, primarily with, Vietnam, agreements were concluded on the supply of Russian military equipment, especially aircraft. An important project for Russia to supply gas to the pipeline through.
Important task foreign policy Russia is the strengthening of the geopolitical position on the southern borders, the Middle East and in. The Black Sea-Caucasian-Caspian region is a zone of collision of the geopolitical interests of Russia and the United States. The policy in recent years towards these states actually means the desire to oust Russia from and strategically important corridor"Central Asia-Caucasus-Europe". Defending their geopolitical interests in the Asian-European oil and gas transportation system, Russia has managed to conclude an important agreement with Turkey on the construction of the offshore section of the Blue Stream gas pipeline, which will directly connect Russians with consumers in Turkey through the water area.
Our country has strengthened its geopolitical positions in the East by signing a number of important agreements with Iran, including in the area of supplies of Russian military equipment.
The most significant positive changes are associated with the conclusion of an alliance between Russia and Belarus, which changes the geopolitical position of our country in the west, since Russia not only receives an important transit corridor to NATO, but also a reliable border ally and a possible powerful military foothold.
The Customs Union (Russia, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan, with the prospect of joining Tajikistan) provides an opportunity to significantly reduce distribution costs in the Eurasian space.
At the micro level, in order to assess the geopolitical position, it is important to consider not only the border countries, but also the border territories of Russia itself. After all, not only traffic flows pass through these sections, but also in some cases - flows of forced migrants and refugees. A difficult situation is typical along the south, in connection with the attempts of the international bandit-terrorist regime that existed in the Chechen Republic to spread its influence from to the Black Sea. At present, the bandit formations have been destroyed, but, firstly, the problems of the border remain, through which the remnants of the fled bandits, supported by international terrorist organizations, can continue their intrigues. Secondly, flows of internally displaced persons and refugees are concentrated along this and a number of other borders in the border areas. To maintain overall stability on the southern flank of Russia, in agreement with, several Russian military bases have been created. The border of Tajikistan with is the most vulnerable section of the common external borders of the CIS. To prevent the flow of drugs that drug traffickers are trying to smuggle from Afghanistan to
The geopolitical position of a country is its place in political map of the world and its relation to various states or groups of states. After the collapse of the USSR, the geopolitical position of the Russian Federation deteriorated markedly. The USSR bordered on land with 12 countries, and after its collapse, Russia acquired new borders - with the former Soviet republics, which in most cases are not properly equipped, which damages its economic and state security. Now 48 of the 89 subjects of the federation are border, and two of them have borders even with three states: Pskov region. - with Estonia, Latvia and Belarus and the Republic of Altai - with Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia.
The geopolitical position of Russia has deteriorated significantly as a result of the liquidation of the political bloc of the Warsaw Pact countries and the CMEA Economic Union (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance). Most of the former socialist allied countries of the USSR have already joined the EEC and the NATO military bloc, led by the United States. Following them, some former union republics USSR (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). As a result of all these geopolitical changes, Russia in relation to the West has practically returned to the state of the times of Ivan the Terrible (XVI century).
As a result of the collapse of the USSR, Russia lost convenient access to the seas, well-equipped ports in the Baltic (Riga, Tallinn, Klaipeda, Ventspils) and the Black Sea (Odessa, Ilyichevsk, Nikolaev, Sevastopol) and many naval bases. Having lost significant territories of the previously unified state, Russia lost both part of its resource potential (deposits), and huge fixed assets in the form of factories, military bases, sanatorium and resort institutions of all-Union subordination, the capacities of the Baikonur cosmodrome (now Kazakhstan has to pay an annual rent of 115 million for them). dollars), etc. In order to compensate for these losses, it was necessary to largely re-create the industrial infrastructure (construction of a new oil loading port on the Baltic Sea in Ust-Luga, expansion of port facilities in the ports remaining in the European part of the country - St. Petersburg, Murmansk and Novorossiysk, construction of bypass railway lines and pipelines, etc.
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Geopolitical position Russia -
Geopolitical position Russia deteriorated significantly as a result of the liquidation of the political bloc of the Warsaw Pact countries and the CMEA economic union ... -
Geopolitical position Russia deteriorated significantly as a result of the liquidation of the political bloc of the Warsaw Pact countries and the CMEA economic union ... -
Geopolitical position Russia deteriorated significantly as a result of the liquidation of the political bloc of the Warsaw Pact countries and the CMEA economic union ... -
Geopolitical position Russia. Geopolitical position -
Geopolitical position Russia. Geopolitical position countries are its place on the political map of the world and its relation to the different. -
Geopolitical position Russia. Geopolitical position countries are its place on the political map of the world and its relation to the different.
In its spatial and territorial expression, Russia occupies a unique geopolitical position. Most modern authors studying the problems of Russian geopolitics agree that Russia, due to its special geopolitical position, is objectively recognized to play a fairly significant role in all global, international and regional processes.
Considering the geopolitical position of the Russian Federation, it should be emphasized that it will be dominated by a more continental geopolitical location and the size of the territories.
The geopolitical position of Russia is characterized by a number of features.
Natural and geographical specificity of the territory of Russia.
Russia occupies most of of Eastern Europe and northern Asia. The area of the territory is 17075.4 sq. m. km. It is washed by the seas of the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific oceans. About? The territory is occupied by plains and lowlands. Mountainous areas dominate in the south and east of the country.
There are about 120 tons of rivers in Russia (more than 10 km long). The largest of them are: the Ob with the Irtysh tributary (5410 km), the Amur with the Argun (4440 km), the Lena (4400 km), the Yenisei (4102 km), the Volga (3530 km). There are about 2 million fresh and salt lakes. The most significant of them are: Baikal, Ladonezhskoye, Onega, Chudskoye, Taimyr.
Forests occupy 41% of the territory of Russia, in the north - arctic deserts and tundra, in the south - steppes and semi-deserts.
The climate of most of Russia is temperate continental, in the extreme northwest - maritime, in the south of the Far East - monsoon. On the northern islands and the Taimyr Peninsula, the climate is arctic and subarctic, on Black Sea coast Caucasus - subtropical.
The bowels of Russia are rich in minerals: oil and natural gas, coal, iron and manganese ores, apatites, phosphorites, ores of non-ferrous and precious metals, diamonds, etc.
Unified energy systems operate on the territory of the Russian Federation. In the Russian Federation there are systems of main gas pipelines - Central, Volga, Siberia - Center, etc. Gas pipelines operate in neighbouring countries, as well as gas pipelines - Urengoy - Western Europe, Yamburg - Western border of the Russian Federation.
There are 3 metallurgical bases in Russia: Ural, Central and Siberian. Mechanical engineering is represented everywhere, but it is most developed in the Central region, the Volga region, in the North-West, the Urals and Western Siberia. The most important areas of the chemical industry: Central, Northwestern, Volga, Ural and West Siberian. The Russian Federation is an important exporter of metallurgical products.
Russia is a federal state: it includes 21 republics, 49 regions, 6 territories, 10 autonomous regions, 1 Autonomous region. The length of Russia's external borders is 90,532 km. At the same time, sea borders are almost twice as long as land borders. The number of border states is 16 (more than anyone else in the world). As part of Russia, 45 subjects (administrative and political units) are border regions.
The uniqueness of the territorial and geographical location of Russia in geographically associated with its location on two continents, between two oceans. Sometimes you can find the expression "Russia is characterized by dualism squared."
For dozens of countries in the southern and western hemispheres, washed by two oceans at once, predominantly aquatorial dualism is characteristic.
Russia has a special specificity of transport infrastructure.
Ground communications include:
Automobile communications; they are characterized by: poor development, low throughput, in the Asian part highways practically absent;
Railways (quite developed in the European part; beyond the Urals (Siberia, Far East residually developed in the European part; beyond the Urals ()th ability, in the Asian part there are practically no highways) are underdeveloped. In practice, these regions are connected with the European part only by the Trans-Siberian Railway, built at the beginning of the century. BAM remains unsuitable for operation of both passenger and freight traffic).
There is a problem of railway connection between Russia and Europe. It is well known that the railway track in Russia is wider than in Europe. For direct communication with Europe, additional resources are needed, and stations for transferring wagons to European bogies are now located in neighboring countries, which creates additional difficulties;
The oil and gas pipeline is one of the most problematic areas for modern Russia. The fact is that built in Soviet time oil and gas pipelines from Siberia to European countries pass through Ukraine and the Baltic states. The experience of the sovereign existence of these countries has brought a lot of difficulties for Russia in pumping oil and gas. For example, Ukraine appropriates about 10% of the pumped gas to itself without the knowledge of Russia.
The use of oil terminals of the Baltic States and Ukraine largely depends on the well-being of relations with these countries.
In connection with the well-known events in the South of Russia, the problem of pumping oil products and gas from the Caspian region arose.
The absence of oil and gas pipelines to the South (to China, Mongolia, and other states) makes Russia dependent on Ukraine, the Baltic countries, and Europe.
The most promising for Russia is the implementation of existing projects for the transportation of petroleum products through Belarus, as well as to China;
Power lines are one of the most promising areas of modern communications. However, after the collapse of the USSR, it became practically impossible for Russia to export electricity. The entire electric power complex of the USSR intended for export (11 nuclear power plants) was concentrated in Ukraine. After the collapse of the union, Russia, despite the rather large capacity for generating electricity, is experiencing some difficulties.
Sea and river communications. Since the time of Peter the Great, Russia has always sought to expand and maintain access to the seas and to have river communications. These are cheap and efficient channels of trade, their military-strategic importance can hardly be overestimated, and in the end, thanks to them, Russia became directly involved in the world of maritime powers. For almost the last three hundred years, Russia has only increased its maritime capabilities. However, with the collapse of the USSR, difficulties arose in the implementation of projects for the development of water communications. For example, with the loss of direct control over the ports of the Black and Baltic Seas, Russia has lost two water areas of ice-free ports: in the Far East, due to the underdevelopment of land communications, the ports continue to be ineffective; direct connection "river - sea - ocean" is also inefficient due to the reduction in the number of deep-water ports and deep-water rivers
Russia has lost the most important river "artery" - the river. Danube, and a number of rivers of the southern direction have sharply reduced their efficiency due to the transition of most of the ports of the Caspian and Seas of Azov into the possession of new sovereign states.
The peculiarity of the geopolitical position of Russia is expressed in the demographic contradiction. As you know, the population of the Russian Federation is 147.2 million people. (1999). At the same time, most of the population is concentrated in the European part of the country, the main reserves of raw materials and energy resources are located in Siberia and the Far East. In Russia, the birth rate continues to decline, and the disproportion in the age and sex characteristics of the population is increasing. In addition, migration processes leave their mark on the democratic situation.
The problem of ethnic contradictions within the country and at its borders is an important factor, which determines the features of the geopolitical position of Russia:
Russia is a biracial country;
More than 150 ethnic groups and ethnic groups live in the country;
The state structure on the basis of national-territorial features affects a number of problems, first of all, the awakening of the self-consciousness of ethnic groups with their options for building a territorial state;
Problems of compatriots abroad.
Russia is characterized by features of a confessional nature.
Russia is a country where three world religions (Christianity, Islam and Buddhism) are widespread; There are many different religious associations (sects). Distinctive feature Russia is multi-confessional with ethnic diversity.
The most important feature characterizing the geopolitical position of Russia is the presence of territorial problems. There are disagreements on such territories as:
Kuril Islands - Japan claims ownership of these islands;
The Amur and Ussuri lands are disputed by China;
Crimea is considered by a number of domestic politicians as a territory of Russia;
Part of the lands of the Pskov region, which are claimed by Latvia and others.
The geopolitical features of Russia include the landscape and climatic conditions.
Thus, the features of the geopolitical position of Russia are determined by such factors as: the natural-geographical imperative; economic, demographic, environmental features; territorial, ethnic and confessional contradictions both within the country and between the states of the near abroad and their closest neighbors.
Geopolitics - the science of control over the territory, the patterns of distribution and redistribution of spheres of influence (centers of power) of various states and interstate associations.
Geopolitical situation in Belarus changed with the ending " cold war". The USSR, the Warsaw Treaty Organization (OVD) collapsed. Since 1991, the Republic of Belarus - independent state. The country is surrounded by regionally influential states with significant resource, economic and military potential.
The Republic of Belarus, by its geographical position, is located in the center of Europe, and also occupies the middle part of the Eurasian continent as a whole. The length of its territory from north to south is 560 km, from west to east - 600 km. The Republic of Belarus borders on five states: in the north and east with the Russian Federation (the length of the borders is 990 km), in the south with Ukraine (975 km), in the west with Poland (399 km), in the northwest with Lithuania (462 km) and Latvia (143 km); the total length of the borders is 2969 km1. The capital of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk, is located in a favorable geographical location. The distance to European centers is short. So, to Vilnius - 215 km, to Riga - 470 km, to Warsaw - 550 km, to Kyiv - 580 km, to Moscow - 700 km, to Berlin - 1060 km and 1300 km to Vienna.
The Republic of Belarus is an inland country, one of 37 countries in the world that do not have direct access to the sea. However, this disadvantage can be compensated by a developed intra-regional river system and active use of close seaports of neighboring states (Kaliningrad, Gdansk, Ventspils, Klaipeda), which are located at a distance of 250-350 km from the Belarusian borders. Borders with neighboring states pass mainly through flat areas, which contributes to the creation of convenient transport routes and the development of intensive economic ties not only with immediate neighbors, but also with other, more distant countries of Europe and Asia2.
In terms of the size of the territory (207.6 thousand km2), Belarus ranks 13th among more than 40 European countries. It accounts for 2.1% of the area and 1.5% of the European population. In terms of area, Belarus can be compared with Great Britain (244.1 thousand km2) and Romania (237.5 thousand km2). It has a larger territory than such highly developed European states as Austria, the Netherlands, Greece, Portugal, etc. In terms of area, Belarus exceeds the combined territory of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia by 1.2 times3.
When assessing the geopolitical position of the country importance has a population. In terms of population, the Republic of Belarus ranks 14th in Europe (as of January 2001 - 9,990,400 people)4. 1.3 times more people live in Belarus than in the three Baltic countries combined, 2 times more than in Finland or Denmark. The same population as in Belarus, among European states have Belgium, Hungary, Greece, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Yugoslavia5. The average population density in the country is 48.4 people per 1 km2, which corresponds to the level of Ireland (51 people per 1 km2), Bosnia and Herzegovina (51 people per 1 km2), slightly inferior to Lithuania (56 people per 1 km2), in 2- 2.5 times lower than in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Poland - 124, Czech Republic - 131, Slovakia - 110 people per 1 km2)6.
Belarus has a relatively homogeneous, favorable for stable development National composition. According to the 1999 census, Belarusians make up 81.2%, Russians - 11.4%, Poles - 3.9%, Ukrainians - 2.4%, Jews - 0.3%, etc. 7 By European standards, Belarus can be considered as a medium-sized country in terms of territory and population, comparable to Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Greece, Portugal.
Geopolitical position of Russia
The role and place of Russia in contemporary world is largely determined by its geopolitical position, those. location, power and balance of power in the world system of states. Geopolitical position Experts consider Russia taking into account geographical, political, military, economic and other factors. One of the important components geopolitical position is the ability to control key spaces and geographical points. This ability is a derivative of the degree of self-sufficiency (viability) geopolitical subject. From the point of view of my geopolitical position Russia, as the direct successor of the USSR and the Russian Empire, found itself in a new situation. This situation has developed as a result of the actions of certain geopolitical patterns. From the second half of the 1980s. Soviet Union gradually began to lose control, first over the countries of the socialist camp, and then the union republics. After the collapse of the USSR, 17 out of 22 million square meters remained in Russia. km of territory. Russia's capabilities are largely determined by the transport and geographical factor. The territorial array of Russia ceased to correspond to the frame transport infrastructure that existed in the USSR. The main highways of Russia - Yuzhsib and Transsib - pass through the territory of Northern Kazakhstan (Transsib near Petropavlovsk), sections of high-voltage power lines, communications, pipelines also turned out to be there. New geopolitical realities have developed on the western borders. Russia found itself separated from Europe by a belt of independent, independent states and at the moment has limited access to the Baltic and Black Seas. The largest ports on the Black and Baltic Seas became foreign to Russia. Of the major ports on the Baltic, St. Petersburg remained, on the Black - Novorossiysk and Tuapse. Before the collapse of the USSR, there were 25 railway crossings on the western border, contemporary Russia has only one - from the Kaliningrad region to Poland. The main transshipment railway junctions are located on the territory of Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Geopolitical changes affected the borders of Russia. Within the framework of the USSR, out of 77 Russian administrative and political units, only 13 were border ones, today more than half are border ones. The number of foreign countries bordering Russia has also changed: previously there were 8 neighboring countries, now there are 16. No other country in the world has such a number of neighboring states.
A significant part of the new borders does not have official state status. The spatial and geographical narrowing due to the Baltic coast, the Black Sea region, and the Crimea returned Russia, as geopoliticians note, to “pre-Petrine times”. These territories provided a wide outlet former USSR to the outside world. Under the new conditions, Russia in the northwest and south did not retain its former control over key areas. From the new geopolitical subjects - the Baltic countries - there was a tightening of their positions, up to territorial claims; on a number of points, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict was growing; declared itself a complex knot of contradictions Moldova - Transnistria. In the early 90s. 180 territorial-ethnic disputes were recorded on the territory of the former USSR. Ensuring the processes of forming the statehood of Russia and protecting its territorial integrity is considered a priority in the field of foreign policy. It is important for Russia to complete the process of becoming within the current borders as contemporary Russian state. At the same time, the strengthening of the statehood of such republics as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, as well as economic integration with them by Russia should be supported in the most active way. It is these three states that are most important in terms of geopolitical Russia's interests. For Russia, an important question is: will it control oil flows from discovered large oil and gas fields on the Caspian shelf? The Caspian basin, like the Black Sea and the Baltic, was a significant part of the Russian geostrategic potential. One of the patterns geopolitical process is that if control over space loses one of geopolitical subjects, it is acquired by another subject. The "Turkic" and "Islamic" factor in the context of the weakening of Russia as geopolitical the subject began to actively manifest itself in the direction of Central Asia, the Volga region and North Caucasus, while using different bridgeheads, including the Azerbaijani one. The leaders of Azerbaijan declare the desirability of transporting oil to Turkey, and through it to the West, bypassing Russia along the so-called Transcaucasian corridor. Experts believe that the flow of goods moving from Central Asia through Russia holds the Urals, the Volga region, Western Siberia, the Far East and the European part of Russia together into a single whole. If the Transcaucasian corridor is implemented, the problems of Russia's territorial integrity may become aggravated.
For Russian geopolitical position the changes taking place in the European space and related to NATO's advance to the East are not indifferent. Geopolitically, this means the invasion of the West into the sphere that was originally “non-Western”. “The line of conflict lasting thirteen centuries” (S. Huntington) moved to the space of Kievan Rus. There is a point of view according to which a kind of “cordon sanitaire” of the NATO countries is emerging on the western borders, cutting off Russia from the Baltic and the Black Sea, controlling all transport outlets to the West and turning the Kaliningrad region into an exclave cut off from the main Russian territory. Another point of view, in a less dramatic form, is that a number of Central European countries that joined NATO in the past constituted a bridgehead and buffer for Russia, and now they are only a buffer, i.e. a weakly militarized zone of stability between Russia and NATO. In the current difficult conditions, it will be possible to realize its strategic interests in the Western European and Eastern European regions if Russia does not rely on “ geopolitical imperative”, reviving their past imperial ambitions, but on their economic potential. If we mean the eastern direction, then the Russian positions in the Far East, East Asia and western part Pacific Ocean were under threat. Russia's place as a "superpower" is now occupied by China, as it turned out to be more competitive. In terms of GDP, China has moved to the leading countries: together with Japan, it shares 2-3 places in the world, according to World Bank forecasts, China will move to first place in the world in 20 years, the United States will go down to second place, followed by Japan, India and Indonesia. And in the Asia-Pacific region, which will be the most promising region in the 21st century, geopolitical Russia's status as a world power will be determined primarily by the main indicators of economic policy. Russia throughout its history has always been a serious geopolitical subject. Today it is the country with the largest territory in the world, which is located on two continents. The task that Russia itself must solve is to prevent, firstly, infringement of its positions on the world stage, and secondly, ousting it from participating in solving problems affecting its strategic interests