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territories. Unlike the leaders of other states, emerged in the post-Soviet space, the Russia ruling elite up to the present time has not determined clearly its attitude to Russian problem and national Russian history. It means that creation of special Russian history, autonomous of history of Russia and the USSR, is not perceived at this level as a political problem and a state need. The search for topical "Russian idea" has become one of the themes of contemporary historic knowledge, while etatisme became its founding principle. National idea is perceived primarily as a state, sovereign but ethnic idea. The attitude to Russian history is interpreted first of all as the history of the Russian state.
"Moskva", M., 2010, N4, p. 4-16.
K. Landa,
political scientist S. Alibekova,
candidate of political sciences (the city of Makhachkala) CONTEMPORARY TERRORISM IN THE CASPIAN REGION
The Caspian region includes five countries, located on the perimeter of the Caspian Sea: Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan. The Caspian Basin has a strategic meaning for security of new independent Central Asian states and the Caucasus as well as of China, Turkey and the countries of the South Asia, notes Askar Nursha. For leading western countries the significance of the region as a territory, encircling "the middle lands" of Eurasia, assumes the strategic meaning. Already in the 1990s, military NATO experts made prognoses on probable entry of Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the North-Atlantic Alliance, which would make it possible to keep Russia within the tight encirclement on land and sea.
In this region there are concentrated big reserves of hydrocarbons, which may be developed within the framework of international cooperation. According to prognoses of experts, the total resources of the Caspian Basin make about 8 billion of equivalent fuel, including the share of Russia in the amount of 2 billion tons. The region has the significant "cultural-civilization meaning" as a buffer zone, where world religions and cultures coexist. The religious and ethnic factors, obviously, aggravate its vulnerability to the external impact.
The development of events in the Caucaus and in the Basin of the Caspian Sea (BCS) shows the destructive anti-Russian actions according to the well prepared scenario. The program of undermining influence of Russia in the Caucasus and in the BCS is being carried out; the attempts are being taken to push Russia out of this region.
The world reserves of oil and gas provoked a ferocious struggle between the interested countries for getting high profits thanks to realization of hydrocarbons by means of their shipment through their territories, by means of fulfillment of their fuel-energy needs and by essential reduction of import expenses. Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, basing on religious factor and great material, financial and military support of the western countries and the USA, claim for the role of regional leaders in the Caucasus. The foreign countries are interested in joint development of oil reserves, but this fact does not guarantee stability in the Caucasus and the BCS, as well as unleashing military conflicts.
The geopolitical contraction of Russia to the borders of the RF again transforms the Caucasian region, first of all its southern part, into the sphere of competition/cooperation of the world and regional powers. The contemporary accents of "Grand Game" in this field are determined by the location on its transportation routes of the hydrocarbon resources from the Caspian Basin and the perspectives of
transformation of the Trans-Caucasus into the corridor which connects Euro-Atlantic with the Central Asia, avoiding Russia, Iran, China or restless Afghanistan.
The factor of the space occupies not only significant place in competition between the leading powers. Oil is not only economic, military-strategic but also political resource. In the beginning of the 1990s, one of the forms of geopolitical control of western countries over the North Caucasus became the ethnic-confessional separatism. After discovery in the Caspian Basin of great oil reserves, the conflict was started in Nagorny Karabakh, followed by conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and in the whole North Caucasus, noted A.G. Guseynov. Obviously, disintegration of the USSR and the market reforms, resulted in crisis in all spheres of public life, caused aggravation of the social-economic situation and inter-ethnic problems.
The territorial aspect of ethnic problems is urgent also in Russia. As one of important works on this problem is considered to be the study of political geographer R. Kaizer "Geography of Nationalism in Russia and the USSR". R. Kaiser deliberates over the role of "territorial component" in formation of protonations and nationalism of non-Russian ethnic groups. The present process of globalization raises a special acute sense relating to the territory and the borders, S. Kara-Murza determines. The experts in ethnology stress the particular aspect of this systemic sense of a threat, which in the whole complex of threats, is caused by globalization. The danger of the loss of control not only over "the soil" but also over the natural resources results in great weakening of the protection force of the national borders. The ideologists of globalization present the mankind as a conglomerate of individuals, as "human dust". Globalization is being publicly declared to be the passage of the control over natural resources of the Earth to
the financial elite of the world ("world market" will determine the access to these resources).
The international terrorism by its nature does not differ from the political terrorism in a separate state: it is aimed at undermining stability of society, demolishing of the borders and usurpation of its territory. With the naked eye it is seen that the aims of globalization are the same: to get influence, power, wealth and re-distribution of property at the expense of public or international security. After the terrorist acts in New York on 11 September the USA pursued the course for forceful penetration to the Caucasus and the Central Asia. The USA unleashed war against the regime of Taliban in Afghanistan and located its military bases in the Central Asia, which terminated the undivided supremacy over this region. America started to re-train by NATO standards the Azerbaijani and the Georgian armies.
Many scientists and politicians are afraid that military cooperation of Georgia and Azerbaijan with NATO surpasses far away the frameworks of NATO program "Partnership for Peace" and is directed to establishment of the USA and its allies' geopolitical control over the Caucasus. In this connection, Russia may confront the situation, when near its southern borders NATO will use its emergency forces for struggle against international terrorism with evident intention to locate the so-called "peacemaking forces" in the conflict region. All this may not help presenting a threat to the North Caucasus and all Caspian states. Dagestan has land and sea borders of hundred km long borders with Azerbaijan. The most significant Trans-Caucasian transportation routes and pipelines as well as multi-channel communications go through the territory of both republics.
Occupying the place as the point of crossing interests of various powers, Azerbaijan has to carry out the tried and flexible foreign policy. For the post-Soviet times, Azerbaijan succeeded to prove that it
is not a weak and dependent geopolitical substance; it plays the key role in the South Caucasus and the Middle East. Probably, this is the unique example of a CIS state, which has successfully diversified its foreign policy. Taking actions, according to the principle" we lack friends and we lack enemies, but we have only interests", Baku succeeded to make great powers seek for friendship with a small state. Azerbaijan usually succeeded to fit the key to important international actors. Azerbaijan thanks to it location in the Caspian region is the connecting link between the South Caucasus and the Central Asia, occupies a significant place in Russian foreign policy. At the same time, under conditions of its involvement in the struggle against international Islamic terrorism, its relations with the politically stable secular neighbor-state, occupying irreconcilable position relating to the religious extremists, are very important. Taking into account the numerous Azerbaijani Diaspora, the factor of Azerbaijan has not lesser significance for Russia.
Twice more dangerous are the threats, emerging from the states of the South Caucasus (particularly from adjacent states on land and sea). The strongholds and strong points of terrorism were created in the countries-neighbors of Russia. Thus, the network of training camps for children with Arabic tutors was functioning in Azerbaijan: Muhammad Salam Abd al-Khamid of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Ali Khoroko of Somalia, Arif Abdulla, Kaid Abd ar-Pakhman Khaurizi of Yemen and others. Apart from education, they were engaged in dissemination of religious literature, video-cassettes etc. in Dagestan and Chechnya. The stronghold in Azerbaijan is used up to the present time as an integral part of "global antifade" , noted researcher of the Institute of Islamic Perception (Malaysia) Ahmad Faiz bin Abd ar-Rakhman.
The significance of the non-predicted events in the Caucasus was appraised by M. Iordanov, who described them in the following way
below. The Karabakh conflict in Azerbaijan and the Abkhazia conflict in Georgia had their impact on Dagestan, where refugees found their shelter and enjoined medical treatment; arms and hard currency were transported through its territory, where fighters were hidden. Of special importance for the spread of terrorism in the republic was existence of the long border with Chechnya, since along both sides of this border there were settlements of thousands of Chechen Dagestanis and Dagestani Chechens, connected by many family relations and historic ties, when they lived within united theocratic state under common leadership of imams and waged war against the Russian Empire for almost the whole XIX century. Since the beginning of the first Chechen war dozens of refugees founded the shelter in Dagestan. With due account of the particular circumstances, of special relations between the republics, Russia did not moved its military forces to Chcehnya from the territory of Dagestan and did not locate there its strongholds to wage military operations. Nevertheless, three years later of the Khasavyurt agreements the Chechen fighters, their Dagestani supporters and foreign mercenaries, headed by Bassayev and Khattab, invaded Dagestan, where the situation aggravated due to the unforeseen flow of terrorism, displayed also in the form of Islamic extremism.
The numerous extremist non-governmental religious-political organizations (NGRPO), "charitable" foundations, societies and other structures of some states of the Muslim East carry out their activities creating the external Islamic terrorist threats. The following five countries of the Persian Gulf were the most active sponsors of the North Caucasian Islamists: Saudi Arabia, the United Arabic Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain. Many mercenaries were arriving from other Muslim countries, such as Turkey, Pakistan etc.
Since the middle of the 1980s, the number of terrorist acts was growing in the RF. The geopolitical control was established in the
North Caucasus also by means of spread of radical Islamic trend -wahhabism. It is necessary to take into account the fact that on the territory of the South Federal District serious terrorist actions of bandit formation of separatists and religious extremists were taking place, liquidating shaking balance, crossing out the efforts of the federal center, local authorities to improve economic situation, to arrange peaceful economic development (events in Dagestan in 1999, in North Ossetia in 2004, in Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria in 2005). The religious-political extremism of wahhabies attained its highest level for the period of intervention of international terrorist bandits' groups in Dagestan in August-September 1999. According to the data of the law enforcement bodies, the activities of terrorists in Dagestan had intensified. Only for nine months of 2005, over one hundred terrorist acts were committed, and representatives of law enforcement structures, officials and even scientists were victims of these actions. Having examined all terrorist acts, committed in Dagestan for the last years, and the appropriateness of their execution, M.Iordanov discovered that the certain forces were using terror as a means of redistribution of power functions and property. The post-Soviet capitalization has led to the criminalized symbiosis of power and money. It is difficult to enumerate such examples. Another terrorist factor in Dagestan became religious radicalism, enforced by Ichkerian influence. Hence, numerous terrorist acts against servicemen of the Russian army.
The problems of unity, territorial integrity and security of Russia are directly connected with the situation in the North Caucasus. The key position is occupied by the Republic of Dagestan, which has access to the Caspian Sea and international communications, has rich raw resources (two thirds of the Russian part of the oil shelf in the Caspian
Sea). This fact is comprehended by most sensible politicians in the center and by local officials.
Iran, keeping under its control a rather great part of world energy resources and occupying an advantageous strategic place, may compete with Russia. Iran is the only of the five Caspian states, which has a direct exit to the Indian Ocean, which gives it advantages for transportation of energy resources from the Caspian Basin. Iran, facing the problem of security in the Caspian zone, determines the aims of its long-term regional strategy as follows: the search for new markets for selling its goods, for investments to overcome the USA policy directed to international isolation of Iran, for use of its advantageous geographic location in order to lay and to direct through its territory the communications, the oil and gas as well as transportation flows. In the sphere of policy in relation to the region's states, Iran takes into account the level of their involvement in the blocs, hostile to Iran, the partner relations and unions.
Iran insists on partition of the sea on the basis of equal shares (20% to each state). According to this principle, the national sector of Iran would become larger than its border, if it were laid along the middle line. Evidently, it would engender new problems, for instance, restriction of freedom of navigation. It should be said that the USA and Turkey raised the issue of transporting to the Caspian Sea the ships of the third countries with the right to check the Russian cargo, transported to Iran. The Iranian official representatives consider that the agreements among Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan on partition of the Caspian Sea contradict the existing legal documents, regulating the status of this sea. Iran proposes to lay several export pipelines for shipment of the initial and further of the main part of oil. Apart from the suspended "Iranian route" of oil pumping, Iran lobbies other projects, particularly, the gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia. It is
evident that the aim of Iran consists in ensuring its share in the Caspian oil and gas resources, in occupying the position of the main transit country. To achieve this aim Iran demonstrates a high level of pragmatism. Just therefore Iran, like Russia, is interested in economic and political stability in this region.
Kazakhstan is the only Central Asian country, which has borders with Russia. The special border problem of Russia and its southern neighbors (Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan) is related to the partition of the continental shelf of the Caspian Sea. The main opponent of Russia became Azerbaijan, which insists on the complete division of the Caspian Sea among the coastal states and on leaving to their discretion the right to use their resources. Kazakhstan gradually occupied the position, which is nearer to the position of Azerbaijan, having agreed only not to extend the discretion right for use of water space (i.e. to divide only the sea bottom). The lack of the united approach to the issue of the status of this continental lake-sea resulted in the situation, when Kazakhstan initiated in 1993 creation of consortium "Kazakhstan Caspian Shelf' for exploration of its own shelf of the Caspian Sea with participation of big western companies; later Russia arranged an international tender for the parts of the Caspian water areas, regarded by Kazakhstan as their own parts of the Caspian Sea. In 1997, in this connection the first territorial conflict flared up and subsided for some time after the compromise, achieved in January 1998, to defer determination of the borders for the tender district until fixation of the state border and the general principles of the Caspian Sea shelf.
Turkmenistan, referring to its neutral status, officially recognized by the United Nations, is not concerned about legalization of any agreements on the Caspian Sea. Besides, the leadership of Turkmenistan in general regards to be premature to agree to the plan of partition of the Caspian Sea, favored by Russia, Azerbaijan and
Kazakhstan, up to the time of elucidation of relations with Azerbaijan concerning belonging of disputable oil fields, which are subject to claims at the same time of several Caspian states. As a whole, Turkmenistan expresses solidarity with Iran, which objects against foreign companies' activities in any forms in the disputable fields and against their unilateral development. The intractability of Ashghabad and Tehran concerning determination of the legal status of the Caspian Sea is explained by the fact that, unlike Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, neither Turkmenistan with its small oil fields in the Caspian Sea, nor Iran with its huge oil possessions in the gulf have any point for accelerating the settlement of this issue. Just for this reason, they have chosen the tactic of protraction, when they lose nothing but intend to get some gains.
At the same time, the contradictions in the Caspian areas of oil and gas extraction create significant challenges and security risks; the unstable situation rests in the routes of hydrocarbons' transportation. Evidently, it is difficult to achieve the compromise in partition of the Caspian Sea, in particular in the sphere of its resources' development. It is displayed by economic and political rivalry unfolding for the sake of control over the oil fields in the Caspian Basin. The disputes, caused by existence of oil and gas reserves, will result in deterioration of interstate relations for a long time, according to the expertise. The main question is that solving of this problem directly depends on the determination of the legal status of the Caspian Sea and on the conclusion by all five regional actors of the comprehensive international agreement, which seems to be less believable in the nearest perspective.
By its own experience, Russia comprehended that a significant threat to its national security and territorial integrity originates from the international radical Islamist and nationalist terrorist groups, which try
to strengthen their positions in the regions of compact settlement of Muslims. The Islamist terrorism engenders significant problems for all states, including the states, which were not subject to direct attack of terrorists. First of all, Islamists actively use Muslim communities, located in non-Muslim countries, not only for collection of financial means and recruitment of mercenaries but also for execution of the direct terrorist acts. The problem becomes more significant, if one takes into account a great number of refugees from Muslim countries, i. e. the refugees, who settled in western countries; its significance was perceived by such countries, as Germany, Netherlands, France and the Great Britain. At the same time, numerous representatives of Muslim communities, involved in giving financial support to terrorism, are closely connected with legal business in these countries, and any measures directed against them might be difficult to take both for legal and political foundations.
The threats and challenges may depend on the following circumstances:
The extension of the sphere of activities of extremist groups to the Caspian region, i.e. use of terrorism as a new instrument of Caspian geopolitics. The mutual relations of the Caspian states and the third countries. It concerns primarily the relations between the USA and Iran, which balance on the verge of the significant political conflict.
The political processes in the Caspian states, since the internal instability will have impact on the Caspian situation.
The general world consumption of oil.
There are certain concerns of pessimists, which are caused by probable change of balance of military-political forces in the Caspian Basin, related to activities of China, and which also may provoke new inter-state tensions. Like the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Basin acquires evident signs of militarization, which is the logical consequence of
closer interconnection between geopolitics and geo-economy. At present, actually all Caspian states started to raise their military presence in the Caspian Basis.
One of the reasons of the Caspian Basin's militarization may be regarded also the lack of results of negotiations on the legal status of the Caspian Sea against the background of intensified development by Russia and Kazakhstan of oil fields and gas deposits in the northern part of the Caspian Sea. The growth of military forces of these countries as well as of Azerbijan is directed to ensuring security of work of their and foreign oil and gas companies, under conditions of existing tensions among the Caspian states. The other essential cause of the Caspian region's militarization is also a real threat of extremist activities in the zone of oil extraction by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia. From the point of view of any terrorist organization, the diversion acts in the region of the Caspian Sea may result in rather significant consequences: (1) to provoke inter-state conflicts, particularly in the arias of disputed oil fields and gas deposits; (2) to undermine economic security of some states with state budgets, which depend on export of the Caspian oil; (3) to aggravate the investment climate, which will deliver a blow primarily against economy of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan; (4) to confront the terrorist acts, for instance, explosions of the functioning oil pipelines or tankers, which may result in serious ecological problems and probably to the interstate tensions.
The present terrorist movement, confronted by Russia, consists in coalescence on the ideological basis of radical Islamism of religious, ethnic and criminal types of terrorism practiced by local groups, supported by the international terrorist structures. This circumstance demands corrections in the Russian policy in the North Caucasus. It is inadmissible to reduce the struggle against terrorism only to the
forceful component. It is possible to lessen the social basis of support, given to terrorists and separatists, only by means of neutralization of "key" factors, promoting intensification of terrorist acts. Apart from that, as the experience of many countries of the world shows, it is necessary to develop the anti-terrorist legislation and its application, to intensify activities of secret services in this direction, to take actions directed against financial support of terrorism, to carry out agitation and propaganda work as well as to arrange explanatory activities.
However, all these activities may prove to be inadequate, if Russia does not reduce corruption to the acceptable world level, does not overcome the systemic crisis, does not make the going on reforms attractive for the majority of citizens, thinks I.P. Dobayev.
Since the second half of the 1990s, the policy of Russia in the Caspian Basin was marked by certain positive steps and trends, demonstrating growing pragmatism of Russian diplomacy and its actions aimed at taking into account the new geopolitical realities. The activities of Russia in the Caspian region are not connected, like in Soviet times, mainly with the urge towards opposition to the West or to regional forceful centers. Both political and energy diplomacy tries to take into account the strategic priorities of the state. The principal aims of Russia consist in preservation of control over energy resources of the region and in solving the problem of territorial partition of the Caspian Sea.
And the not lesser attention is given to promotion of interests of national enterprises and energy companies, despite the fact that the views of the latter about some problems (the status of the Caspian Sea, the lines for laying pipelines etc.) often differ from the course of policy, carried out by the foreign policy and military official structures. It is obvious that Russian diplomacy confronts a rather complicated task: to coordinate and to reduce to a common denominator the Caspian policy
in such a way so it will be possible to take into account different interests, including the interests of Russian companies, participating in development of oil and gas resources of the Caspian Basin.
With due account of the scale of threats, connected with the spread of extremism and terrorism, the state should take measures in the sphere of adoption and execution of legislative measures. A special attention should be paid to public associations and religious organizations, which violate the aims and tasks, fixed in their statutes, and carry out activities which are directed to make forceful changes of the constitutional order, to undermine integrity of the state and internal security of the country, to strengthen separatism, to create illegal armed formations, to stir up national and religious hatred.
"Severny Kavkaz v sovremennoy geopolitike Rossii", Makhachkala, 2009, p. 331-343.
Saltanat Ermakhanova, cand. of sciences (sociology) SOCIO-CULTURAL CHARACTERISTIC PROPERTIES OF KAZAKHSTAN'S POPULATION
The problem on socio-cultural characteristic properties of the Kazakhs is the subject of the Kazakh scientist and researcher discussions. The Kazakh scientists and researchers aren't definite about it. Many Kazakh scientists and researchers pay attention, first of all, of the Kazakhs as the nation related to national development to the problems of culture, mentality, language and try to find the cultural peculiarities corresponding to the modern ideas of democracy and the market in the historical past of Kazakhstan.
Some consider that there are already the market instruments of economic management and the national capital in Kazakhstan, the
