Russia in Global Affairs

Russians have had acute difficulties in coming to terms with their status as minorities in the unwelcoming — sometimes openly hostile — successor states of the Soviet Union. Severed mentally, politically, and geographically from their homeland, these “new” immigrants have had to rethink what it means to be part of a diaspora community and to mentally place themselves within that conceptual space.

Cyberspace offers great promise for the preservation of identity and national culture. Through computer-mediated communication, nations – especially challenged nations like the Russians in the ‘Near Abroad’ – have the ability to maintain and reinforce their identity in new and compelling ways.