Biopower and geopolitics as Russia’s neighborhood strategies: reconnecting people or reaggregating lands?

Abstract

In this article, we address geopolitics and biopower as two different yet mutually correlative discursive strategies of sovereign power in Russia. We challenge the dominant realist approaches to Russia’s neighborhood policy by introducing the concept of biopolitics as its key element, which makes analysis of political relations in the post-Soviet area more nuanced and variegated. More specifically, we address an important distinction between geopolitical control over territories and management of population as two of Russia’s strategies in its “near abroad.”

Keywords:

• biopolitics
• geopolitics
• Russia
• neighborhood

Notes

1. The article is partly based on Andrey Makarychev’s policy memo presented at PONARS-Eurasia workshop held at the Nazarbaev University, Astana, in June 2015.

2. A Russian guitar singer of Jewish origin.

3. A Soviet-Jewish singer of patriotic songs and a member of the Russian State Duma from the ruling United Russia party.

4. The Russian Defense Minister of Tuvan origin.

5. A popular pop singer known for his contestation of Putin’s policy toward Ukraine.

6. A liberal Russian journalist.

7. An opposition leader who was killed in February 2015 close to the Kremlin.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by institutional research funding (IUT20-39) of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research; the Jean Monnet project “The EU's Engagement with Russia and post-Soviet Neighbors” (#564891-EPP-1-2015-1-EE-EPPJMO-MODULE, 2015–2017); and networked project “EU-PREACC” (PIRSES-GA-2012-318911, 2013–2017).