Rebordering the ‘Russian Space’ in the Post-Soviet Era: From Reactive Discourses and Informal Practices to State-Led Strategy

This article examines the roots of the ‘reterritorialisation’ of Russian national interests, examining the debates about territory and borders that emerged in Russia during the 1990s and early 2000s and their long-term integration into state policy. We argue that the current ethno-nationalist trend in Russian politics reflects the perceptions and strategies of a generation of post-Soviet elites, whose ideas about Russia's territorial and humanitarian boundaries were formulated three decades ago. These ideas have since been integrated into official policies, facilitated by the political success of these institutional entrepreneurs. Employing an original methodology that includes extensive use of Russian-language sources and a prosopographic study of key post-Soviet elites, the essay sheds light on the polyphonic nature of Russian border revisionism. The Congress of Russian Communities (KRO) and its role in the context of the Ukraine war(s) will be used as an illustrative case study.