Describe the factors that make most of the former Soviet Republics prone to conflicts and threats.

Question

Philoid · Accepted Answer

Former Soviet Republics are prone to conflicts and threats and the origin of such can be traced back to when they were a part of the USSR. The disintegration of the USSR led to the rise of these conflicts and threats as former satellite states went against the idea of a federation and started making exit claims. This also led to high levels of ethnic conflicts in the region. The factors that make most of the former Soviet republics prone to conflicts and threats are as follows –

• The aspirations of the people which had started taking new leanings with exposure to the ideals of capitalism, democracy etc were not met because of the inherent internal weakness present in the Soviet Unions political and economic institutions.

• The economic weakness was mostly due to spending on military, maintenance of satellite states in Eastern Europe along with the Central Asian Republics. There was also a huge shortage of consumer goods leading to general poverty. The resultant persistent economic stagnation threatened civilian peace and prosperity.

• The economy was also burdened by the development of its satellite states in eastern Europe and within the Soviet system.

• The USSR may have been comprised of 15 different states, but Russia was a dominating nation. This caused the rise of nationalism and the desire for sovereignty within various republics including Russia and the Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Ukraine, Georgia.

• The area covered by the erstwhile USSR was huge in terms of not only space but also in terms of diversity. The ethnic and religious differences also gave rise to conflicts from time to time as different separatist groups try to assert their dominance in the region.

All the mentioned factors have made the concerned region a hot bed for conflicts. The clash between the central dominant powers and the states along with the presence of separatist extremist groups have led to human rights violation in the region and loss of lives and property.