Yanukovich’s electoral defeat does not mean Russia’s defeat. His loss in the election means Russia’s deliverance from its previous hazardous policy line that failed to deliver fruit and, at the same time, created the illusion of a Russian presence – an ephemeral influence and obscure achievements which only served to veil the reality.
There are no legal or international barriers to recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in consideration of the practices that the Western countries demonstrated toward the republics of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the notion of territorial integrity lost its import.
Russia has everything that is required for developing a normal consolidated democracy: private ownership, a pluralistic political system and an enlightened leadership which understands all the difficulties and obstacles that a course toward totalitarianism or authoritarianism can entail. It also has the support of the consolidated West to steadily encourage it through the democratic process.
Yanukovich’s electoral defeat does not mean Russia’s defeat. His loss in the election means Russia’s deliverance from its previous hazardous policy line that failed to deliver fruit and, at the same time, created the illusion of a Russian presence – an ephemeral influence and obscure achievements which only served to veil the reality.
There are no legal or international barriers to recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in consideration of the practices that the Western countries demonstrated toward the republics of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the notion of territorial integrity lost its import.
Russia has everything that is required for developing a normal consolidated democracy: private ownership, a pluralistic political system and an enlightened leadership which understands all the difficulties and obstacles that a course toward totalitarianism or authoritarianism can entail. It also has the support of the consolidated West to steadily encourage it through the democratic process.
When the Baltic countries entered NATO and the European Union a couple of years ago, many thought it was the end of the centuries-old "red line." Euro-Atlantic organizations had crossed into the former Russian and Soviet empires.
In September 2004, the Russian city of Novgorod hosted an international conference entitled Russia at the Turn of the Century: Hopes and Reality. Its organizers were the RIA Novosti news agency, the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Russia in Global Affairs, and The Moscow Times.