MOSCOW - Heated debate over the status of the ethnic Russian community in Turkmenistan has prompted the Kremlin to pledge to protect compatriots there, and elsewhere, and this issue could well become a convenient pretext for Moscow to push its agenda in Central Eurasia.
"The Russian authorities are taking all necessary measures to protect compatriots in Turkmenistan and elsewhere," Sergei Mironov, chairman of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, said in Moscow earlier this month. Russia would back compatriots "in any country", he claimed.
Turkmen residents who hold both Turkmen and Russian citizenship were forced to choose one or the other by June 22. If a person could not meet the deadline, he or she automatically became a Turkmen citizen. Presumably, concerned by the prospect of having no choice but to live in totalitarian Turkmenistan, many Russian-speakers reportedly have sold off their property prior to leaving the country.
Although Russian diplomats in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, have been reluctant to confirm claims of abuses, Moscow has sent a mission to discuss the matter. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Fedotov and Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov held talks in Ashgabat July 8-9. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov reportedly joined the talks via telephone from the city of Turkmenbashi, formerly known under its Russian name Krasnovodsk.
According to the Turkmen official news service Turkmen Daulet Habarlary (TDH), Turkmen officials stated that the rights of ethnic Russians had been never violated in Turkmenistan. "This is what we wanted to hear," Fedotov responded. "We are going not to wage war but to negotiate since more than 100,000 Russian citizens now live in Turkmenistan," Fedotov said after the talks.
Last April, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Niyazov agreed to cancel a dual citizenship agreement signed in 1993. Niyazov interpreted this as giving him carte blanche, and on April 22 he signed a decree ordering the roughly 100,000 residents of Turkmenistan who hold dual Turkmen-Russian citizenship to choose within two months which passport they wanted to keep.
Moscow argues that the Turkmen decree will not become valid until the Russian Duma, the lower house of parliament, formally abolishes the dual citizenship agreement. However, Turkmen authorities have ignored Russian objections and the Turkmen parliament has already ratified a protocol revoking dual citizenship.
Hence Fedotov's mission seemingly failed to achieve any concrete results as both sides just reiterated their respective positions. The next round of talks is due in Moscow in September.
In recent weeks, Moscow has lashed out at Turkmenbashi's policies, as the president is known. Some Russian officials went as far as accusing Turkmenistan of "preparing a mass deportation" and blaming the Turkmen leadership of complicity in drug trafficking and in supported international terrorism.
It has been believed that Moscow agreed in the first place to cancel dual citizenship agreement with Turkmenistan in exchange for a major gas deal. Last April, Niyazov traveled to Moscow and signed a 25-year contract on gas supplies to Russia. According to Turkmen authorities, the deal would bring Turkmenistan US$200 billion and $300 billion to Russia. However, the perceived natural gas trade-off has adversely affected the Russian minority in Turkmenistan.
An estimated 300,000 ethnic Russians live in Turkmenistan, and about 100,000 of them have registered for Russian as well as Turkmen citizenship under the 1993 treaty, according to Konstantin Zatulin, head of the Moscow-based CIS Countries Institute. He urged the Russia authorities to be prepared to airlift tens of thousands of people from Turkmenistan to Russia.
In this environment, allegations of discrimination have touched a raw nerve on both sides. "In Turkmenistan, all people, all nations are equal. Especially the Russian people," Niyazov stated in late June. "You won't find one Russian person here who has been hurt or persecuted."
However, Russian media and analysts have not been impressed. The influential Russian daily Izvestia commented that Turkmen policies "came as a personal challenge to President Putin." In case of further reprisals against ethnic Russians any scenario, including military, should not be excluded, the daily said, adding in an ominous hint that the Turkmen army "had decayed".
No big wonder that Turkmenistan did not like a talk of a "military scenario". "It is evident that slander remains slander regardless its motives," the news service TDH, commented.
Ashgabat has reasons to feel offended as there has even been "regime change" talk in Moscow. "The lewd totalitarian regime should be removed by any means," argues Mark Urnov, head of the Moscow-based Ekspertiza think tank. "Unfortunately, we cannot send a paratrooper division to explain to Niyazov how to live in a civilized world," he said.
It is understood that the talk of regime change is likely to remain mere rhetoric. However, even though it is non-official at this stage, it sends a powerful signal to countries with sizable Russian communities, Kazakhstan, for instance, where nearly half of the population is Russian speaking. "No measures except armed violence should be treated as excessive in order to protect ethnic Russians," Zatulin told journalists in Moscow.
Overall, some 25 million ethnic Russians currently live outside of Russia, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates. Many have been deprived of citizenship in countries they consider home as former Soviet states, now independent. After the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, some 287 million people lost their old citizenship, but not all of them received new ones in place.
After spending years, sometimes generations, in the far-flung corners of the old Soviet Union, up to 5 million ethnic Russians living in the former USSR states moved to the Russian Federation. However, not all of them have been successfully integrated.
There are some 1.5 million bearers of former Soviet passports in Russia who are unable to receive Russian citizenship, argues Viktor Alksnis, a deputy of the State Duma. He urged that they should all be given Russian citizenship.
Russia has recently adopted some concrete policies to attract ethnic Russians. For instance, earlier this year, the Russian army decided to accept ethnic Russians form other former Soviet states for contract service. After three years on duty, these servicemen are entitled for Russian citizenship. For instance, Tajik and Kyrgyz young men already serve at respective Russian military facilities in their countries.
However, the measure is seen as controversial outside Russia as Central Asian states are reluctant to allow emigration of officers and young men with military training. For instance, on July 3, Uzbek Justice Minister Abdusamat Palvan-Zadeh reportedly lashed out at the policy as "illegal".
Meanwhile, some Russian experts warn against over-emphasizing repatriation. Russia should not utilize a policy of massive repatriation of Russian speakers as "this is the most silly option", argues Valery Tishkov, director of the Moscow-based Institute of Ethnology. If all ethnic Russians leave, say, Kazakhstan, it would turn into a state hostile to Russia, he said.
In the past, Russia has tended to ignore the plight of its compatriots in Central Asia and other former Soviet states. But now the "defense of compatriots" is likely to become Moscow's tactical instrument rather than a consistent strategy.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content at atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
By Sergei Blagov
MOSCOW - Heated debate over the status of the ethnic Russian community in Turkmenistan has prompted the Kremlin to pledge to protect compatriots there, and elsewhere, and this issue could well become a convenient pretext for Moscow to push its agenda in Central Eurasia.
"The Russian authorities are taking all necessary measures to protect compatriots in Turkmenistan and elsewhere," Sergei Mironov, chairman of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, said in Moscow earlier this month. Russia would back compatriots "in any country", he claimed.
Turkmen residents who hold both Turkmen and Russian citizenship were forced to choose one or the other by June 22. If a person could not meet the deadline, he or she automatically became a Turkmen citizen. Presumably, concerned by the prospect of having no choice but to live in totalitarian Turkmenistan, many Russian-speakers reportedly have sold off their property prior to leaving the country.
Although Russian diplomats in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, have been reluctant to confirm claims of abuses, Moscow has sent a mission to discuss the matter. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Fedotov and Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov held talks in Ashgabat July 8-9. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov reportedly joined the talks via telephone from the city of Turkmenbashi, formerly known under its Russian name Krasnovodsk.
According to the Turkmen official news service Turkmen Daulet Habarlary (TDH), Turkmen officials stated that the rights of ethnic Russians had been never violated in Turkmenistan. "This is what we wanted to hear," Fedotov responded. "We are going not to wage war but to negotiate since more than 100,000 Russian citizens now live in Turkmenistan," Fedotov said after the talks.
Last April, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Niyazov agreed to cancel a dual citizenship agreement signed in 1993. Niyazov interpreted this as giving him carte blanche, and on April 22 he signed a decree ordering the roughly 100,000 residents of Turkmenistan who hold dual Turkmen-Russian citizenship to choose within two months which passport they wanted to keep.
Moscow argues that the Turkmen decree will not become valid until the Russian Duma, the lower house of parliament, formally abolishes the dual citizenship agreement. However, Turkmen authorities have ignored Russian objections and the Turkmen parliament has already ratified a protocol revoking dual citizenship.
Hence Fedotov's mission seemingly failed to achieve any concrete results as both sides just reiterated their respective positions. The next round of talks is due in Moscow in September.
In recent weeks, Moscow has lashed out at Turkmenbashi's policies, as the president is known. Some Russian officials went as far as accusing Turkmenistan of "preparing a mass deportation" and blaming the Turkmen leadership of complicity in drug trafficking and in supported international terrorism.
It has been believed that Moscow agreed in the first place to cancel dual citizenship agreement with Turkmenistan in exchange for a major gas deal. Last April, Niyazov traveled to Moscow and signed a 25-year contract on gas supplies to Russia. According to Turkmen authorities, the deal would bring Turkmenistan US$200 billion and $300 billion to Russia. However, the perceived natural gas trade-off has adversely affected the Russian minority in Turkmenistan.
An estimated 300,000 ethnic Russians live in Turkmenistan, and about 100,000 of them have registered for Russian as well as Turkmen citizenship under the 1993 treaty, according to Konstantin Zatulin, head of the Moscow-based CIS Countries Institute. He urged the Russia authorities to be prepared to airlift tens of thousands of people from Turkmenistan to Russia.
In this environment, allegations of discrimination have touched a raw nerve on both sides. "In Turkmenistan, all people, all nations are equal. Especially the Russian people," Niyazov stated in late June. "You won't find one Russian person here who has been hurt or persecuted."
However, Russian media and analysts have not been impressed. The influential Russian daily Izvestia commented that Turkmen policies "came as a personal challenge to President Putin." In case of further reprisals against ethnic Russians any scenario, including military, should not be excluded, the daily said, adding in an ominous hint that the Turkmen army "had decayed".
No big wonder that Turkmenistan did not like a talk of a "military scenario". "It is evident that slander remains slander regardless its motives," the news service TDH, commented.
Ashgabat has reasons to feel offended as there has even been "regime change" talk in Moscow. "The lewd totalitarian regime should be removed by any means," argues Mark Urnov, head of the Moscow-based Ekspertiza think tank. "Unfortunately, we cannot send a paratrooper division to explain to Niyazov how to live in a civilized world," he said.
It is understood that the talk of regime change is likely to remain mere rhetoric. However, even though it is non-official at this stage, it sends a powerful signal to countries with sizable Russian communities, Kazakhstan, for instance, where nearly half of the population is Russian speaking. "No measures except armed violence should be treated as excessive in order to protect ethnic Russians," Zatulin told journalists in Moscow.
Overall, some 25 million ethnic Russians currently live outside of Russia, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates. Many have been deprived of citizenship in countries they consider home as former Soviet states, now independent. After the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, some 287 million people lost their old citizenship, but not all of them received new ones in place.
After spending years, sometimes generations, in the far-flung corners of the old Soviet Union, up to 5 million ethnic Russians living in the former USSR states moved to the Russian Federation. However, not all of them have been successfully integrated.
There are some 1.5 million bearers of former Soviet passports in Russia who are unable to receive Russian citizenship, argues Viktor Alksnis, a deputy of the State Duma. He urged that they should all be given Russian citizenship.
Russia has recently adopted some concrete policies to attract ethnic Russians. For instance, earlier this year, the Russian army decided to accept ethnic Russians form other former Soviet states for contract service. After three years on duty, these servicemen are entitled for Russian citizenship. For instance, Tajik and Kyrgyz young men already serve at respective Russian military facilities in their countries.
However, the measure is seen as controversial outside Russia as Central Asian states are reluctant to allow emigration of officers and young men with military training. For instance, on July 3, Uzbek Justice Minister Abdusamat Palvan-Zadeh reportedly lashed out at the policy as "illegal".
Meanwhile, some Russian experts warn against over-emphasizing repatriation. Russia should not utilize a policy of massive repatriation of Russian speakers as "this is the most silly option", argues Valery Tishkov, director of the Moscow-based Institute of Ethnology. If all ethnic Russians leave, say, Kazakhstan, it would turn into a state hostile to Russia, he said.
In the past, Russia has tended to ignore the plight of its compatriots in Central Asia and other former Soviet states. But now the "defense of compatriots" is likely to become Moscow's tactical instrument rather than a consistent strategy.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content at atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
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