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Russia-US Relations: From Cold War Foes to Pragmatic Friends Dr. Sanjeev Bhadauria For the United States, Russia and China are the two main barriers to the realization of uni-polarity and its dominance in Europe, Eurasia and the Asia–Pacific region. The United States continues its dual policy towards Russia. On the one hand, the United States will keep on squeezing Russian strategic space, reducing the Russian sphere of influence, and debilitating its military power. On the other, the United States will try hard to keep Russia on the track of democracy, neither retreating to the communist past; nor leaning towards nationalistic authoritarianism. Despite the fact that the United States is the only superpower in the world today, it is unable to realise its goal on its own. It needs both allies and cooperation of other parties. In Eurasia, the United States needs Russia’s cooperation and in the Asia–Pacific region it requires China’s cooperation. On global issues, such as non-proliferation, environmental protection, and countering terrorism and combating organised crime, the United States, Russia and China have many common interests India and Russia: Salience of Strategic Synergy Dr. Ranjana Misra The salience of Indo-Russian defence cooperation has undergone a paradigm shift: from buyer seller relations to a more fundamental one that could evince strategic vision for the future. This is a binding sphere of limitless opportunities for both countries. Indo-Russian defence ties have weathered many storms, outlived many criticisms and come out with novelties of partnership. The comfort level in this long-term relationship enjoyed by the Indian armed forces far surpasses all other nuances, whether it is the Gorshkov refit, supply of Sukhoi fighter jets or T-20 battle tanks. The other moot area emerging in the 21st century is the strategic nuclear power cooperation. Multibillion-dollar arms deals to the tune of 7.5 billion have been signed between both countries to boost trade beyond the limited scope of defense. And the two countries have set the target to elevate it to 20 billion dollars by 2015. India and Russia have also signed agreements for the long awaited sale to India of a refitted Soviet-era aircraft carrier as well as 29 MiG fighter jets, further cementing Moscow's role as New Delhi's principal arms provider. As nuclear energy assumes growing importance the India’s energy consumption basket, energy-hungry India is likely to emerge as the world's biggest markets for nuclear technology in the years to come and the reactor deal is a triumph for Russia's state atomic agency Rosatom which has faced and overcome stiff competition from French and US rivals.
RAHULA SANKRITYAYANA: AN INDIAN ITINERANT ON EURASIAN LANDSCAPE Dr. Suchandana Chatterjee
Rahula Sankrityayana was in Soviet land for the first time in 1935. He travelled by train to Moscow via South East Asia, Japan, Korea, Manchuria and Siberia. From Moscow, he proceeded to the Caucasus via Ukraine. He had glimpses of Bolshevik glory while passing through the arid northern regions of Russia that were inhabited by Russian and Mongol (Chinese) labourers, semi-arid regions and deserts of the Caucasus and plains of Ukraine. He was struck by idolization of heroes of the revolutionary era, especially Lenin and Stalin, whose life-size posters were put up in every public place. Tsarist palaces and dachas (rest houses and resorts) were converted into workers’ residences. Kolkhozes (collective farms) and machine tractor stations (MTS) were spread out in the vast stretches of plains and steppes. The respect for social values had a lasting impact on the mind of the scholar-traveller
Post-Soviet Trends In Russian Cinema: Changing Cultural Ethos Dr. Rashmi Doraiswamy
One of the cultural effects of globalization, that of homogenization, is thus evident in the cinema of the CIS in recent years. The dismantling of ideological structures after the fall of the Soviet Union, also led to a cultural orientation towards the West, particularly the USA. The new narrative of setting part of the story of the film abroad and part in Russia is a trend that has begun after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is the marker of the global turn in the ideological horizon of Russia. The Russian films, however, are not tapping the Russian diaspora as spectators or even tapping the diaspora as an imagined community, as Indian films with similar narratives are doing. The semiotics of this narrative structuration is different: it shows the Russians to be citizens of the world, a world that they had seemingly been cut off from during the Soviet period. A latent racism/hostility is also evident towards African-Americans. The ideological underpinning is that the Russians are closer to Americans than the Americans realize. There is also the paradoxical underlining of the fact that the Russians are far more ethical and that they stick to their principles. This trend is however characteristic of the commercial Russian films that are genre-based, the Russian gangster or action films: Revenge, Brother 2, Bear Hunt, Nostalgia for the Future. The multinational imagination only serves to construct a national identity and its place in the world. This is a narrative that is oriented more towards internal Russian consumption rather than diasporic audiences.
INDOMITABLE RUSSIA Dr. P. L. Dash The bluster and the bombasts of the Cold War era were over by now. Russia was back to business in the world arms market as a potential force that the western powers could no longer write off. A single example is evidently enough to illustrate the matching response to Americans. In reply to the production of a potent non-nuclear bomb, which the Americans called ‘mother of all bombs’, Russia produced a new secret explosive of higher efficiency with the use of nanotechnology, which it calls ‘father of all bombs’. Russia’s new Thermobaric bomb can have twice as high temperature at the centre of the blast than the American bomb and the damage area is much too greater. This has been possible by using high-end technology to achieve higher energy output. Put to destructive use, it can be devastating for humanity as a whole. In outer space, on the surface, inside bunkers and caves et al, there is no sphere that can escape the perimeter of the new bomb. This had legitimately regained the pride of Russianness and has revived the lost glory of Russia. This is perhaps from this vantage point that the mutual cut in nuclear arsenal of both the US and Russia has been viewed. That they had signed in Prague on 9th April, 2010 a bilateral deal to drastically cut down on the stockpiles of accumulated nuclear weapons speaks volumes about their mutual concerns for the security and safety of the world. The ordnance of the new bomb, in efficiency, potency and capability, when air delivered is comparable to a nuclear weapon. Thermobaric technology is new and it assumes importance in the context of huge American spending on defence systems. The US defence budget is pegged at $700 Billion a year at the end of the first decade of this century, while other countries have no comparable or matching parallel. China’s defence budget per year is estimated at $ 90 billion, while that of India’s is three times less - $ 30 billion a year. Russian defence budget in 2009 was in the order of $46.8. In 2008 it was $ 50 billion and Putin intended to enhance it to $125 billion by 2011. Therefore, judging by the sheer spending capability, one could gauze the asymmetry between Russia and the US on the one hand with $700 versus $46.8 billion and India and China with $30 versus $90 billion. This asymmetry in spending posits countries in a bizarre paradox of mighty versus the meek and strong versus the weak. If these four countries are at the forefront of development excluding the European powers, their military prowess could be grossly misused, should a war occur between any of them: India and China are old rivals and so are Cold War rivals US and Russia. The Thermobaric bomb assumes significance in the changing context of international relations. In the sway of globalizing economy when rivals are competing on one platform, it is a dismay to address issues and problems in an isolated fashion from the overall security environment, prevailing around the country.
MEDVEDEV AND RUSSIA’S MODERNISATION AGENDA Dr. Arun Mohanty The ultimate goal of the strategy is to make Russia one of the top five economies of the world and establish Russia as a leader in technological innovation and global energy infrastructure as well as a major international financial center. By establishing itself as a leading economic power, Russia plans to raise the living standards to the level of developed countries and safeguard its national security. The broad objectives of the strategy are to increase the GDP to a level that would ensure $21,000 per capita income by 2020, to place 60-70 percent of the population in the category of middle class and reduce poverty level to that of developed countries.
Russia and Mongolia: Post-Soviet Trends in Relationship Dr. Sharad K. Sony Evidently, though Tsakhia Elbegdorj, the current Mongolian President who took over power in May 2009 is a Democrat, he is considered to be a big supporter of forging closer ties with Russia. While talking about the prospects of cooperation with Russia during an interview with the Russian information agency Interfax, he gave strong indications of making changes in Mongolia’s external and internal policy which would be oriented more towards developing Mongolia’s overall relations with Russia. The idea is that both countries could be able to use their long, friendly relationship to maintain and strengthen peace and stability and create an atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation in the Asia Pacific region to extend cooperation and interactions in the areas of politics, economy, and security. This is as much vital for Russia’s Siberian and eastern flanks as for Mongolia’s hinterland security. Mongolia has already joined the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), as well as the ASEAN Regional Forum on security, besides having an observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). There have been indications that Mongolia would now seek full membership in the SCO, so that it could get further incentives to forge closer ties with not only China, Russia and Kazakhstan but also with other Central Asian member countries of the SCO.
Russia and China: Dragon Downplays Bear Dr. Swaran Singh
However, US continues to have strong limitations as well of being an outsider. At least in the short run, US will never be able to replace Russia or China as the major power broker in Eurasia, nor is it much interested in investing in such an effort beyond a point. This means that, even when imperceptive, the competition for influence remains basically between Moscow and Beijing. But it is essentially this complex web of Moscow-Beijing equations that continues to provide an opening, even temptation, for US to look beyond its singular focus on the war effort in Afghanistan. Indeed, success of US forces in Afghanistan will very much depend on its developing a more comprehensive regional strategy designed to help Eurasian powers address some of their vulnerabilities that make Afghanistan a perpetual flashpoint with implications for US interests
Russia and India: New Realities, New Equations Dr. Surendra K Gupta Of all the summits, the last three - in December 2008 Medvedev’s to New Delhi, in December 2009 Manmohan’s to Moscow, and in March 2010 Putin’s to New Delhi were the most significant. Medvedev’s visit to India was not only highly significant in symbolic terms as it was taking place so soon after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, it also marked a break from Moscow’s earlier stand on additional nuclear reactors. Moscow now agreed to construct four more in Kudankulam for which it had tried to put conditions earlier. And during Prime Minister Singh’s Moscow visit a year later, Russia agreed to supply fuel for its reactors on an uninterrupted basis without any conditions attached. No Western country, including the United States, was willing to do it at this stage. Russia undoubtedly would continue to be an important player in South Asian affairs, but its role would be primarily as a supplier of weapons and energy and, in some cases, of technology. With the loss of vast territories which had once made it almost a neighbor of South Asia, its security concerns are likely to focus more on the territories of South Caucasus and Central Asia and further eastward on the Asia-Pacific region.
Theoretical Discourse On Russia And The European Union Dr. Jugal Kishore Mishra For the pro-Russians, the Russia-European Union binary was and is a reality. By giving more weight to Russia, these Moscovites have identified Russia as the “core” and the “nucleus.” For the pro-Europeanists, Russia cannot play the central security role in Europe and cannot be the fender and provider of Europe, and therefore plays second fiddle to the European Union. Principally because of the aforesaid divide in relative claims of inter se superiority and seniority, a plethora of incompatible identities has been used, more compulsively to define Russia and the European Union. In the present dispensation, both the binaries, defined above, have been suitably and appropriately deconstructed to construct binary links involving the covalent bond.
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