俄美博弈下的吉尔吉斯斯坦——兼析吉尔吉斯斯坦的平衡外交政策

吉尔吉斯斯坦因其独特的地缘战略条件成为俄美两国在中亚博弈的“焦点”。在大国夹缝中生存的吉尔吉斯斯坦，独立以来始终奉行平衡务实的外交政策，努力周旋于俄关两大国之间，利用俄关在吉的利益争夺，巧妙运用平衡外交策略，使俄关两国势力相互影响又相互制约，最大限度地获取了国家利益。。     

俄罗斯对世界石油体系的挑战及其局限

俄罗斯作为一个强势的油气生产大国,既有意愿也有一定的能力对当前世界石油体系的游戏规则提出挑战。但是经过近年来油价波动、金融和经济危机等变故的冲击,俄罗斯挑战能力的局限性充分暴露出来,挑战以全面收缩而暂告一段落。俄罗斯挑战乏力的根源在于自身权力的缺陷和外部因素的结构性制约。俄罗斯能否彻底改变石油体系的权力结构和规则具有很大的不确定性。     

俄罗斯加入WTO的日程及相关问题

二战后苏联作为胜利者曾积极参与组建WTO.冷战时代开始后,苏联出于国家安全考虑没有参加WTO,因为WTO是美国操纵的.20世纪末俄罗斯经济发展遇到了一些困难,在跨入新世纪时,俄罗斯迫切需要修复与整个世界经济体系的关系,并于1993年提出申请加入WTO.     

普京执政后俄罗斯与独联体关系的新变化

普京执政后，从俄罗斯地缘政策和国家利益出发，大力调整对独联体国家的外交政　策，将独联体确定为俄罗斯外交政策的优先方面。一年多来，俄罗斯的独联体新政策取得很　大成效，俄罗斯与独联体国家的关系大为改观，并进一步加强了在该地区的主导地位。     

梅德韦杰夫“去斯大林化的现代化”评析

近来,面对世界金融危机的严重冲击,俄罗斯总统梅德韦杰夫连续发表文章,就俄罗斯的未来发展提出新的战略思考,其核心是建立新型的现代化国家。除了继续强调创新发展、确定优先目标等内容之外,梅德韦杰夫突出强调了"去斯大林化的现代化"思想。"去斯大林化"指的是什么?"去斯大林化的现代化"对于俄罗斯具有怎样的现实意义?这一新的战略目标能否实现?有必要对这些问题进行系统的归纳与分析。     

俄罗斯刑罚体系的演进及其困境

俄罗斯刑法典的刑罚体系演进充分体现了行刑社会化趋势.但是俄罗斯正处于社会变革过程中,刑罚的丰富和社会经济的发展难以匹配,造成很多刑罚种类在现阶段难以实现,阻碍了行刑社会化的发展,损害了法律的权威性.鉴于中俄两国刑法特殊的历史渊源,从俄罗斯刑罚体系演进过程中,去芜存菁,将对我国刑法中刑罚体系的完善产生重要的借鉴意义.     

Business 2.0: Kyrgyz middlemen in Guangzhou

ABSTRACT

Among the many ‘businesspeople’ whom the promise of commercial success has drawn to southern China in recent years one can find a small number of Kyrgyz middlemen. Working mostly with Russian-speaking clients, their job is to organize buying trips, coordinate with local manufacturers, translate, and oversee cargo shipments. Based on ethnographic fieldwork since 2013, this article examines in detail the careers, work routines and business model adopted by Kyrgyz middlemen in Guangzhou. I argue that in contrast to the early bazaar or shuttle traders, who have been operating across Eurasia since the 1990s, these Kyrgyz middlemen constitute a next kind of economic actor within more diversified, service-oriented and formalized value chains across post-Socialist Eurasia (referred to here as Business 2.0). One of these middlemen’s most salient contributions is to translate between the informal and formal domains of national economies as well as within cross-border economic transactions.     

Biting the hand that feeds them? Abkhazia–Russia client–patron relations

ABSTRACT

The article discusses the post-Soviet de facto state of Abkhazia, and its relationship to its main patron, Russia. All patron–client nexuses are marked by a high degree of asymmetrical power – especially with de facto states, which depend upon the patron for their very survival. Thus, it is surprising to see how de facto client states repeatedly show that they are both willing and able to defy the wishes of their patrons and pursue their own agendas instead. Moreover, the patron may be willing to tolerate such rebelliousness. What can explain such “disobedient” behavior? I examine three contentious aspects of Russian–Abkhazian relations: the process leading up to the signing of an extended bilateral agreement in 2014; the tussles over how to fight crime in Abkhazia; and acrimony over Abkhazia’s reluctance to allow Russians to buy property in their country, despite massive pressure from Russian authorities.     

Destined for deadlock? Russia,Ukraine, and the unfulfilled Minsk agreements

ABSTRACT

Bringing peace, security, and stability to the war-torn region of Donbas has proven to be a challenging – some would say near-impossible – task. The “Minsk II” agreement, signed in February 2015, was supposed to put an end to the armed hostilities, resolve the underlying political issues, and gradually restore Ukrainian government control of the country’s eastern border. None of this has happened. Despite continuous Western support and pressure, progress in the implementation of the peace plan signed in Minsk has been slow, also after the much-anticipated Paris summit of the “Normandy Four” (Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France) in December 2019. This article discusses the underlying causes of the current stalemate, emphasizing factors such as the inherently complex nature of the conflict, the process through which “Minsk II” came into being, the vague and ambiguous language of this and other agreements, practical challenges related to the timing and sequencing of agreed-upon measures, and Russia’s persistent non-acknowledgement of its role in the conflict.     

Appropriating and contesting ‘traditional Islam’: Central Asian students at the Russian Islamic University in Tatarstan

ABSTRACT

Based on an ethnographic case study of an Islamic university in Russia, I examine how the state-implemented and bureaucratized traditionalization of Islam in Russia affects the everyday life of Central Asian students and how this project ‘from above’ is entangled with their coping strategies. I show how religious education has become a resource for the state as well as for young students and their parents. The Russian state uses these official religious institutions to control the Muslim population by creating and promoting a state-approved version of ‘traditional Islam’ and producing official religious specialists. For the young Muslim students, however, Islamic education provides, in addition to religious knowledge, access to networks, social security and new economic opportunities. It thereby offers a way to cope with the uncertainty caused by high unemployment rates and other socio-economic difficulties among young people.