Business, economic and political relations with the former members of the Soviet Union have never been easy for Russia.
Politically, any Russian government had a mixed attitude to them. Mostly, affections for Ukraine and Belarus, culture-wise, the closest relations of Russia. Negative feelings (politically) for the Baltic States, Still, the most controversial region is the Caucasus.
Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan are now independent. Still, large and powerful ethnic groups from these countries still live in Moscow and other major cities. With the current rise of "nationalistic sense", unhealthy debates became frequent.
Needless to say, gas and oil supplies have been an important political instrument since the very collapse of the Soviet Union.
Early in the 1990's nearly all the ex-soviet republics got supplies of energy resources from Russia at greatly reduced prices. This was pushed by political will of the Kremlin and popular attitudes. Plus, CIS inherited the spider-web of soviet communication (transport, pipelines, electric lines etc) which traditionally ran from the center of Russia to her borders.
Still, the links in hearts and minds have been much more important...
Politically, any Russian government had a mixed attitude to them. Mostly, affections for Ukraine and Belarus, culture-wise, the closest relations of Russia. Negative feelings (politically) for the Baltic States, Still, the most controversial region is the Caucasus.
Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan are now independent. Still, large and powerful ethnic groups from these countries still live in Moscow and other major cities. With the current rise of "nationalistic sense", unhealthy debates became frequent.
Needless to say, gas and oil supplies have been an important political instrument since the very collapse of the Soviet Union.
Early in the 1990's nearly all the ex-soviet republics got supplies of energy resources from Russia at greatly reduced prices. This was pushed by political will of the Kremlin and popular attitudes. Plus, CIS inherited the spider-web of soviet communication (transport, pipelines, electric lines etc) which traditionally ran from the center of Russia to her borders.
Still, the links in hearts and minds have been much more important...
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