Russia's Policy Toward Compatriots Abroad After The Disintegration Of The Soviet Union

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union,about 25 million Russians were divided by the borders of the newly independent countries.They are no longer the main ethnic group in the former Soviet Union,but have become foreigners far away from their homeland,becoming the largest cross-border ethnic group in the former Soviet Union.In the process of building a nation-state with non-Russian ethnic groups as the main body in various countries of the former Soviet Union,the Russian compatriots abroad often encounter problems such as lowering of social status,inability to guarantee political and economic rights,and infringement of language,culture and education rights.They still identify with the Russian language and Russian culture,and they still attach themselves to and identify with the role of the Russian people as a bond of multiethnic cultures.As a result,they are estranged from the countries where they settled and its main national culture,and finally become an obstacle for the former Soviet republics to construct a nation-state.This issue has attracted much attention because it is the most prominent,the most involved,and the greatest political influence within the region,it has overloaded Russia's borders and has become an important factor affecting regional politics and relationship between the countries.The unique socio-political and cultural phenomenon has long existed in the region.In order to improve the survival of Russian compatriots in the country of settlement,and alleviate the structural contradictions between Russian compatriots and the main ethnic group in the country of their settlement,since the 1990 s,Russia has formulated a series of policies for the Russian compatriots abroad,and gradually built a relatively complete policy system as an important part of Russia's internal affairs and diplomacy.This paper takes Russia's compatriot policy as the research object,the main purpose is to investigate the formulation and evolution of Russia's compatriot policy in different periods,and to analyze the practice of the policy in the former Soviet countries.This paper analyzes and discusses the internal relationship between these factors and the results of the Russia's compatriot policy behavior according to the different factors that influence the policy behavior.According to the implementation effect of the policy,this paper evaluates the overall effect of the overseas compatriot policy,analyzes the main defects and prominent problems exposed in the implementation process of the policy,and thus discusses the successful experience and lessons from the failure of the policy.On the basis of analysis and evaluation,this paper makes predictions on the future development trend of Russia's compatriots policy,and summarize the impact of the policy on regional politics and international relations.The first chapter of this article clarifies the meanings and related concepts of "compatriots abroad",distinguishes and analyzes the controversy caused by the definition of "compatriots abroad",traces the formation and development of the group of Russians abroad,and combs the history of Russia's policy toward the Russians abroad.The second chapter clarifies the principle objectives,composition system and management mechanism of the policy.It examines the policy development of the Yeltsin period,Putin's first and second term,Medvedev and Putin's third term and examines the relevant policy texts.The third chapter discusses the implementation of the Russia's compatriot policy in the former Soviet region,which had been divided into four categories for analysis of the policy practice.The fourth chapter evaluates the performance of the short-and medium-term effects of the policy toward compatriots abroad in the past 30 years,summarizes the effectiveness of the policy,reveals the problems and defects exposed by the policy,and explores the experience of the success or failure of the policy.We can find inter-relationship between these influencing factors and the policy from the aspects of domestic political transformation,national characteristics and regional transformation.The fifth chapter predicts the future development of the policy based on analysis and evaluation.The paper tries to analyze and understand the cognitive attitude of Russian authorities towards the issue of compatriots abroad,and to explore the content of this policy from the Russian perspective.Russia's policy toward compatriots abroad not only changes due to Russia's domestic and foreign political environment and regional situation,but also affects Russia's internal affairs and diplomacy.The formulation,implementation,and actual effects of the policy on overseas compatriots directly affect the their living conditions,their recognition of Russia and country of residence,and their choices.The policy directly or indirectly affect the relationship between the compatriots abroad and the main ethnic groups of their settled countries,and also the interactive relationship between Russia and the other former Soviet republics.