Thankfully, Putin kept his shirt on this time...
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In
the case of Russia, its recent lamentable history can be easily
summarised. After the collapse and fragmentation of the former Soviet
Union in 1991, Russia found itself in a difficult situation. As well as
having to deal with the development and introduction of new democratic
political institutions, it also had to deal
with the abandonment of communism in Eastern Europe, the accelerated
industrialisation and technological development of China, outdated
industrial and productive technology, no guaranteed markets for its low
quality products, an oil glut and food and medical shortages. As a
consequence, crime, suicide, malnutrition, starvation, unemployment,
alcoholism, drug abuse, homelessness and destitution escalated under the
hapless tenure of Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first democratically elected
president. As if that wasn't enough, Russia faced the humiliation of its
loss of superpower status. Under such circumstances, many Russians
turned their backs on substantive democratic processes and when Yeltsin
appointed ex-KGB Colonel and former St. Petersburg local bureaucrat and
politician Vladimir Putin as his successor in 2000, many Russians
breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Putin
proved to be a shrewd and sophisticated political operative, and
rapidly formed his puppet political party, United Russia, to rubber
stamp his (imperial) executive decisions. United Russia now dominates
the Duma, Russia's national legislature. He also forged strong
relationships with the chief executives of Russia's newly privatised
industries, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church as its property
portfolio expanded and it underwent a significant religious revival.
Putin also exercises stringent media censorship and strict news content
control, compromising media freedom. He has also been the beneficiary of
an international oil revenue rise and consequent Russian economic
recovery. However, not everything
has gone his way. Russia might have intervened in Georgia in 2004, but
it has not been quite so lucky in Chechnya, where rebel Islamists have
resisted its occupation and undoubted military repression since the
onset of the Second Chechen War in 1999. Although Russia pulled out most
of its troops in 2009, terrorist 'black widow' attacks still occur
sporadically in Moscow and other Russian cities as the wives, daughters
and sisters of male combatants killed in the uprising take their revenge
against their tormentors. Sadly, this often involves Russian civilians.
As
a diversionary tactic to its military impasse in Chechnya and
increasing problems with diminishing international oil revenues, Putin
has pandered to Russian Orthodox homophobia and religious sectarianism
and introduced legislation that censors positive educational and youth
health information about sexual orientation and gender identity about
LGBT fellow citizens through educational institutions and the mass
media. As if that wasn't enough, the regime turns a blind eye to
homophobic and transphobic violence, persecution and murder by Russian
neofascists and others. Sickeningly, Russian Orthodox priests have even
been witnessed providing religious blessings to neofascists, white
supremacists and other perpetrators of religious, racist, homophobic and
transphobic violence and homicide. Unfortunately, Russia still retains
enough power to make the lives of its LGBT citizens miserable.
But
while Russia is still a formidable economic and military power in
Europe and Central Asia, what about the neighbouring Ukraine, a former
constituent state of the Tsarist Russian Empire and Soviet Union?
After
periods under Polish, Lithuanian, Mongol and Ottoman Empire control,
Russian Tsar Peter the Great annexed much of the territory today
recognised as the Ukraine in 1775, followed by the Crimea in
1783. When the Tsarist Empire fell in 1917, there were numerous
Ukrainian secession attempts over the next three years of the Russian
Civil War (1917-20), but to no avail. The next twenty years were grim
ones as Ukraine's agricultural economy underwent forced agricultural
collectivisation, crop failure, famine, starvation and Nazi occupation
(1941-1945). Thereafter, the Ukraine derived some benefit from ongoing
industrialisation and economic development, until the Chernobyl nuclear
reactor meltdown occurred in 1986. The tragedy has cost a conservatively
estimated five thousand deaths from continuing radiation poisoning and
environmental contamination in the Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus.
Some estimates go as high as several hundred thousand, although these
are unconfirmed, given that they occurred during the Soviet era of
intensive media censorship and official secrecy.
In
1991, Ukraine seceded from the collapsing Soviet Union. Unfortunately,
as with neighbouring Russia, it was ill-prepared for the loss of captive
former Soviet industrial goods markets, along with the continuing
health nightmare from the Chernobyl tragedy, leading to its own steep
GDP decline and the consequent rise of political corruption and
electoral fraud within its fledgeling democratic institutions. While
initial Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk (1991-1994) seemed to be an
ethical person, corruption set in during the time of his successor
Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005), relieved by the reformist and nonviolent
"Orange Revolution" against government corruption, led by Viktor
Yuschenko and Yulia
Tymoshenko. Unfortunately, their successor, Viktor Yanokovych proved as
corrupt as Kuchma had and imprisoned Tymoshenko after a farcical
kangaroo court trial. In 2008, the global economic crisis hit the
Ukraine hard, not helped by the gas pipeline crisis engineered by the
neighbouring Putin regime in Russia. Under conditions of electoral
fraud, Yanukovych "won" the Ukrainian 2010 election, and civil society
rapidly polarised. This occurred due to deep ethnic and religious
divisions within the Ukraine itself. While over three quarters of its
population are Ukrainian, seventeen percent are Russian speakers. While
Yanukovych and his puppets wanted the Ukraine to join a Russian led
Customs Union that also includes Georgia and Kazakhstan, Yulia
Tymoshenko and most Ukrainian speakers are active proponents of closer
European Union ties and want prospective membership. In November 2013,
Kiev saw fiery protests over abandonment of an EU association treaty in
favour of Yanukovych's Customs Union trade pact. In January 2014,
draconian anti-protest legislation antagonised anti-Yanukovych
protestors further, but they maintained and intensified their protests.
By late February, Yanukovych's regime collapsed, Tymoshenko was released
from prison...and ethnic Russians began to agitate against the new
government.
The
Crimea is ethnically distinct from the rest of the Ukraine, with which
it exists uneasily, given that it has long been the site of successive
Russian and Soviet Black Sea fleets and naval installations. It has been
an autonomous republic, although the Ukraine
cracked down on what it considered 'excessive' autonomy in 1995 and
arranged a new constitution for the peninsula. Since then, there have
been periodic clashes between Russia and the Ukraine over the presence
of the Russian Black Sea fleet and its naval installation there.
Tensions escalated in 2008-9, with suspicions of Russian annexation
plans in Kiev. These tensions diminished during the Yanukovych era,
until the events of February 2014 and the fall of Yanukovych and his
corrupt cronies. Since then, Russia has moved into the Crimea and
virtually annexed it since March 1, 2014.
What
about LGBT Ukrainians? Like
neighbouring Russia, the Ukraine decriminalised male homosexuality in
1991. However, it is still a conservative and religious nation,
dominated by the Ukrainian Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches. That
said, it is not as bad as neighbouring Russia in other ways. Pride
marches have not been suppressed, nor has censorious and repressive
"anti-propaganda" legislation been passed in Kiev's Parliament, although
sporadic episodes of neofascist assaults on LGBT Ukrainians still
occur. Oddly enough, some neofascists opposed the Yanukovych regime,
although others supported it. Russia is widely suspected of covertly
funding the pro-Yanukovych elements.
At
present, Russia seems to have permanently annexed the Crimea. Whether
it will now move on to attack Ukraine in support of ethnic Russian
Ukrainians is uncertain.
Recommended:
Ben Judah: Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love With Vladimir Putin: New Haven: Yale University Press: 2013.
Verena Fitz: State Building: A Comparative Study of Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus and Russia: Budapest: Central European University Press: 2007.
Daniel Smilov: Political Finance and Corruption in Eastern Europe: The Transition Period: Aldershot: Ashgate: 2007.
Dominique Arel: Rebounding Identities: The Politics of Identity in Russia and the Ukraine: Washington DC: John Hopkins University Press: 2007.
Adrian Gruelke: Challenges of Ethno-Nationalism: Case Studies in Identity Politics: Basingstoke: Palgrave: 2010.
Paul J. D'Anieri: The Orange Revolution and Aftermath: Mobilisation, Apathy and State in the Ukraine: Washington DC: John Hopkins University Press: 2010.
Masha Gessen: The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin: New York: Riverhead: 2013
Thane Gustafson: The Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia: Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: 2012.
Marcel van Harpen: Putinism: The Slow Rise of a Radical Right Regime in Russia: Houndmills: Palgrave: 2013.
