30 years after the fall of the USSR, does Moscow still scare its neighbors?

Audio 29:30

Russian President Vladimir Putin during a video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence on December 9, 2021. AP - Mikhail Metzel

By: Sébastien Duhamel Follow

1 min

He was a giant. A giant from another time, that of the Cold War and of a world divided into two blocks: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR in the East, opposed to the United States and to the West in the Where is. Then came the time of the downfall 30 years ago now, and a complicated decade followed for Russia. An economy, a country damaged, until the appearance of an almost providential man. His name: Vladimir Poutine obviously. His first mission, Chechnya where he promised to track terrorists down to the toilet, that sets the tone. Since then, the new Master of the Kremlin has made his intentions clear: to restore Moscow to its former grandeur and influence. Affirm its importance in the diplomatic game as in Syria. Show muscles directly, in Crimea,annexed since 2014 as in Dombass where a trench warfare broke out the same year, in the heart of Europe. To protect its influence, to serve its interests, How far can Russia go? So 30 years after the fall of the USSR, should its neighbors be afraid? This is our debate of the day on RFI.

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To discuss it 

Cyrille Brêt

, associate researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute and professor of geopolitics at Sciences Po Paris, co-author of the Eurasia Prospective blog

Jean Radvanyi

, professor at INALCO, specialist in the Caucasus, Russia and the post-Soviet space

Françoise Thom,

specialist in the USSR and post-communist Russia, emeritus lecturer in history at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, author of the books

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