The irony of this model of colonialism that Marx decried was that it was the way the Soviet Union worked.
Take Kazakhstan. The Soviet brass in Moscow ordered most of the minerals in the resource-rich country to be transported to Russia for processing.
This system gave Russia economic power over all other Soviet republics, and the processing jobs that the Russians got paid much better than mining jobs. Kazakhstan was certainly the kind of exploited colony Marx railed against.
Under Vladimir Putin, Russia is intent on re-imposing a colonialist system that exploits its neighbors.
It’s already succeeded in doing that with our country, Armenia.
If anyone doubted that Russia considers Armenia its first full-fledged post-Soviet colony, they were dispelled this week when Armenians demonstrated against planned electricity price hikes.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comments about the demonstrations were one of the most unmistakable shreds of evidence yet that Moscow sees Armenia as its water boy.
Before we discuss Peskov’s remarks, let’s look at other evidence that, only two decades after the break-up of the Soviet Union, Armenia has become a Russian colony again.
To start with, we are dependent on Russia for our natural gas.
Russia also owns our electricity system — a circumstance that was at the heart of the demonstrations this week.
Still another sign of Armenia’s colonial status is that our currency, the dram, has lost 15 percent of its value in the past year. The reason for the sharp fall is that our economy is overly dependent on the Russian economy, which is in recession because of a drop in oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine.
Russia’s colonialist mentality surfaced in dramatic fashion early this year when it refused to let Armenia try Russian soldier Valery Permyakov, who had killed seven members of an Armenian family outside the base at Gyumri where he was stationed.
That decision sparked days of angry protests across the country.
The clearest sign until Peskov’s comments that Russia sees Armenia as a colony was Moscow brow-beating President Serzh Sargsyan into having us join the Moscow-dominated Eurasian Economic Union rather than the European Union.
Armenia was on track to join the EU until Putin summoned Sargsyan to Moscow in August of 2013. Whatever was said at the meeting — it was probably a combination of Putin inducements and threats — Sargsyan announced immediately afterward that Armenia had dropped its EU plans as if they were plague-infected.
Now back to Peskov’s comments about the electricity-price protests.
The demonstrations started after Armenia’s Russian-owned electric system, Inter RAO, announced it would raise prices up to 22 percent beginning in August.
Because we are one of the poorest countries in the former Soviet Union, a jump like that would cause hardship for tens of thousands of Armenian families.
So many of us took to the streets of the capital Yerevan and other cities on Monday to call for the price-hike plan to be revoked.
The small-scale protests swelled into the thousands on Tuesday. Police responded by roughing up some demonstrators, turning water hoses on lots of others and arresting 250.
The show of force failed to prevent another round of protests on Wednesday.
When Russian journalists asked Peskov to comment on the demonstrations, he said Russia was keeping a close eye on the situation.
“Armenia is our closest partner — we are united by historical ties with Armenia and the Armenian people,” he said. “We hope the situation will be settled in the near future in strict accordance with the law.”
Peskov’s remarks were cryptic but pregnant with meaning.
They indicated first of all that Russia considers our country its property.
The comment “Armenia is our closest partner” was a not so thinly veiled insinuation that “Armenia is ours.” In other words, our colony.
Many deemed his comment about Russia hoping the situation will be settled soon a threat.
Russia has 3,000 soldiers at Gyumri that it could dispatch quickly to Yerevan to put down protests that appear to be threatening the regime of its vassal Sargsyan.
What Peskov was suggesting was that Russia would use those troops, and take other measures, to ensure Sargsyan would not be overthrown, as pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich was in Kiev.
Although many in the West did not understand the full implications of what Peskov said, Armenians did.
“The very fact that the Russian presidential press secretary commented on the events in Yerevan is evidence that either Russia is taking part in the events unfolding in Yerevan, or it is very worried and trying to take part, or is expressing readiness to participate if events get out of control,” blogger Musa Mikaelyan noted.
By “taking part in the events,” Mikaelyan presumably meant Russia consulting with, and drawing up contingency plans with, the Sargsyan government.
None of us knows whether these electricity-price-hike protests will fizzle or expand.
Putin’s greatest fear is that they will lead to an attempt to pull off a color revolution like the ones that ushered in pro-Western governments in Ukraine and Georgia.
You can bet he’s determined to prevent that, with the use of Russian force if necessary.
Putin has said that the break-up of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical calamity of the 20th century.
He’s been trying for years to re-impose colonization on Russia’s neighbors as a way of recreating the colony-based Soviet system.
The situation here in Armenia poses a direct threat to those efforts.
Armine Sahakyan is a human rights activist based in Armenia.
