Imperialism or bureaucracy? Vladimir Putin has issued a decree to search for and legally secure “Russian property” abroad. Even those that no longer belong to Moscow – such as the US state of Alaska.
Since Vladimir Putin invoked the unity of Russians and Ukrainians in a treatise in the summer of 2021 and, as proof, unleashed his tanks on the neighboring country six months later, Kremlin observers have regularly flinched when the names of foreign states are heard in distant Moscow. Like now again, when the Russian president accused his Baltic neighbors of “Nazism”.
Baltics “declare tens of thousands subhuman”
They, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, “declare tens of thousands of people subhuman, deprive them of their most basic rights and subject them to hate speech,” Putin said at the opening of a monument to civilian victims of fascist terror. But Russia is doing “everything, everything, to stop Nazism and finally eradicate it.” The Kremlin chief justifies his attack on Ukraine almost word for word.
“Russki Mir” is the slogan Russia uses to justify its neo-imperialism. “Russki Mir” means “Russian world” and for nationalists like Vladimir Putin, the cipher means above all: Russia is where Russians live. And almost 20 million still do so in all the independent states that emerged from the ruins of the Soviet Union: the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Armenia and so on.
Countries such as Latvia also became NATO members because, with almost 50 percent of their population being ethnic Russians, they fit too well into the “Russki Mir” concept. How unwilling Moscow is to let its “world” drift apart was shown in 2008, when Georgia refused to accept the secession of the pro-Russian regions of Abkhazia and Ossetia and was bombed by Russian jets for five days. Six years later, the takeover of the country by its large neighbor began in eastern Ukraine.
List of lands that were once Russian
The man in the Kremlin probably takes great pleasure in observing the world’s reactions to the mere mention of foreign policy “goals.” Just like a few days ago, when he signed a decree with which his government wants to begin a kind of inventory of Russia’s current and former lands. The document provides for the provision of financial resources for the search, registration and legal protection of “Russian property” abroad. According to the Russian news agency Tass, this also includes “real estate” that belonged to the times of the Tsarist Empire and the Soviet Union. Like Alaska, among other things.
Although the US state is not explicitly mentioned, the northwestern tip of the American continent quickly became the subject of lively discussions for Russian military bloggers. So vividly that the Washington government felt compelled to respond: “Well, I think I can speak for all of us in the US government and say that he (Putin, editor) is certainly not getting Alaska back.” said the deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman recently.
Alaska purchased by the USA in 1867
Alaska is the largest state in the USA, but also one of the least populated. Just 730,000 people live in an area six times the size of Germany. Until 1867 the area belonged to the Russian Empire. But the inaccessible nature and lack of money forced the tsar to sell the huge area. The USA paid 7.2 million US dollars for Alaska – a ridiculous price even from the perspective of the time.
In 2014, Vladimir Putin once spoke about the deal in a television program. At the time, he called the sale a “bargain” but also said people shouldn’t be upset about it because, the Kremlin chief continued: “Russia is a northern country, 70 percent of its territory is in the north and the far north. Alaska is located “Not in the southern hemisphere either, right? It’s cold out there too.”
And yet there is the statement from MP Sergei Mironov. He wrote a few weeks ago on “That Mexico gets Texas and the rest back. It’s time for Americans to think about their future. And Alaska too.”
Such words and the new decree fire the imagination of the predominantly nationalist military bloggers. Putin could use it to declare the sale illegal. As the beginning of a whole campaign for reclaim, so to speak. A Telegram post by a military blogger states that after Alaska, parts of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia could be declared Russian “possession” again.
What constitutes Russian property?
Even the London Institute for the Study of War is looking at the new list of old properties, but notes that “the exact parameters of what constitutes current or historical Russian property are unclear.” However, the Kremlin, as a “protector of its claimed property, could use it to advance mechanisms that ultimately aim at destabilization.”
As the war in Ukraine shows, Putin is still having difficulty fulfilling his great power fantasies, but he does have experience with destabilizing foreign countries that do not or no longer belong to the “Russian Mir.”
Sources:Newsweek, Institute for the Study of WarDPA, DGAP, Sergei Mironov on XReuters, AFP, The Hill