Suchergebnisse

The growing and increasingly politically active Russian Muslims of diverse ethnic backgrounds provide various political models for their relationship with Russians. Some still accept Eurasianism but assume that it is Muslims not Orthodox Russians who should be the "older brothers" in the alliance or, in any case, that the very notion of older and younger brother should be put to an end. The others want complete separation from Russia or at least the minimization of their relationship with it. Finally, others believe in the Islamization of Russia. The models provide a glance at the possible scenarios for Russia's future.

Eurasianism as a concept emerged among Russian émigrés in the 1920s, with the premise that Russia is a unique ethnic blend, primarily of Slavic and Turkic peoples. Its geopolitical implications for Russia include gravitation toward mostly Turkic Central Asia. Alexander Dugin, one of its best-known proponents, believes that the demise of the Soviet Union was simply a tragic incident. The people of the former USSR should again be united in a grand Eurasian empire, with Russia a benign and generous patron, providing its "younger brothers" clients economic largesse and defense, mostly against the predatory USA. The "orange revolutions" and the rise of Russian nationalism, for whose proponents a restored imperial presence is rather marginal, indicate that Eurasianism—along with the dream of the resurrection of the USSR—is becoming less viable.