Security Issues in Southern Russia

Abstract

In southern Russia, many interests are intricately interwoven and clash in real life—those of Russia itself, of the newly independent states of the South Caucasus, of the Middle East, of the United States, and of Europe. The economic interests of transnational companies trying to secure access to the natural resources and strategic communications channels of southern Russia and the Caspian Sea are also clearly present in the region. Contemporary problems of world politics and economics, which according to established tradition are often formulated as the opposition of East-West and North-South, are also visible here. As Willy Wimmer, a member of the CDU [Christian Democratic Union] faction of the Bundestag and vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe], emphasized in his interview to Berlin-Brandenburg Radio, "both in Europe and in the South of the Russian Federation, the issue is the pursuit of global strategic goals involving access to natural resources."