Redrawing the Lines

Last Friday, Russia's foreign minister announced that the "unrecognized republics" of the former Soviet Union "have a right to self-determination." Writing in Kommersant, correspondents Vladimir Solovyev and Vladimir Novikov see this as an indication that, in the run-up to the G8 conference, Russia "wants to send a message to the West about its exclusive rights in the former Soviet Union and the lengths it will go to to restore its superpower status." The obvious inference to be drawn from the announcement is that Russia no longer respects the territorial integrity of Georgia and Moldova, and that Moscow intends to continue supporting pro-Russian breakaway movements there.

Meanwhile, a Regnum correspondent quotes Moldovan activist Yevgeny Nikolayev as saying that the Ukrainian political crisis may spread to Moldova, and that

“[Vladimir] Voronin’s refusal to pursue the policy of ‘Finlandization’ carried out (although on paper) before him and characterized by relatively balanced partner relations with the West, as well as with the East, has broken the constitutional foundations of the society as well as the mental basis of the common Moldovan citizen.”