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Putin's Historical Narrative: Problems of Russian Post-Soviet Identity and the Role of History during Putin's Presidency 2000-2008
Knappová, Barbora ; Svoboda, Karel (advisor) ; Kolenovská, Daniela (referee)
The thesis focuses on a historical narrative promoted by president Putin during his first two terms in office during the years 2000 - 2008. Furthermore it aims to analyse the consequences of Putin's uses of history on the domestic and the international level. First, theoretical aspects of political use of history are drafted since they are essential to understand the role history plays in a nation-building process. Consequently, tools used to promote a certain historical narrative are mentioned. The work describes main problems related to the formation of Russian post-Soviet identity and analyses causes of Yeltsin's failure in this task. Subsequently, Putin's political visions such as a need of strong Russia and restoration of great power status are presented. The work also identifies how Putin's political goals project into his view of history. The main characteristics of Putin's historical narrative are analysed on a basis of secondary literature and Putin's speeches. The thesis focuses separately on Putin's use of symbols of three Russian historical époques - the Tsarist Russia, the Soviet Union and the Yeltsin era. Emphasis is put on Putin's attitude towards the Soviet past since his Second World War narrative and his view of Stalin represent a major source of controversies. The consequences of...
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Sino-Russian Military Cooperation in 2000 - 2008: Limits of Mutual Convergence
Buchar, Jan ; Svoboda, Karel (advisor) ; Horák, Slavomír (referee)
The subject of my bachelor thesis is an analytical study which identifies the limit of Sino-Russian military cooperation in 2000 - 2008. In the following thesis I focus on three forms of military cooperation between these two states which are a) Russian military sales to China, b) a possibility of a Sino-Russian military alliance emergence, and c) cooperation in space-related technologies. Within these three categories I analyse the aims of Sino-Russian cooperation and its limits in 2000 - 2008. In case of Russian military sales to China the thesis are concerned with sales of significant amounts of aerial and maritime products. Denied Chinese demands for the advanced Russian military hardware is the main limitation. In case of a military coalition emergence the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) played the crucial role. Under aegis of the SCO several joint military exercises took place. Western observers perceived that as evidence of an emerging military alliance. Both states claimed that neither the SCO nor the military exercises were directed against any third country. The main obstacle in the military alliance creation is that Russia and China consider their relationship with Western states higher than with each other. In case of space-related technologies, that have direct military...
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The relationship of the Russian Federation to Russian minorities in the "near abroad"
Žižková, Marie ; Svoboda, Karel (advisor) ; Šír, Jan (referee)
Thesis "Relationship of the Russian Federation to the Russian minorities in the ‚Near Abroad'" deals with attitude of Russia to the minority, which was created after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The members of this minority are consisted of Russians who migrated within union state and after its breake up became a minority of the new succession states. During the 1990s the minority issue was integrated into the foreign policy discourse until it became, under Putin, one of the central elements of Russian foreign policy. The paper analyzes the government rhetoric in the statements and strategic documents published between 1991 - 2008 and confronts them with examples of Russian reaction to conflicts in post-Soviet states linked to Russian minority. The thesis is divided into three sections. The first part presents the position of minorities in the newly formed states and historical development of diaspora issue in the Soviet Union. The second part provides the overall picture of Russian foreign policy focused on the Near Abroad as well as a list of normative acts, which consist proposals to solution of minority issue. The last part analyzes the Russian stances during the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the Baltics and the revocation of dual citizenship in Turkmenistan. Author also deals...
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The Impact of Theory of Optimal Currency Areas on Discursus of Political Parties ČSSD and ODS about the Entry to the Eurozone Between the Years 2010 - 2012
Müller, Lukáš ; Kasáková, Zuzana (advisor) ; Svoboda, Karel (referee)
1 Abstract This essay is about the theory of optimal currency areas (OCA) and its reflection in public discussion of two biggest political parties in Czech Republic - ODS and ČSSD, about Czech Republic entering the European Monetary Union (EMU). Although EMU hadn't met the criteria of OCA before the examined period, both parties entered the elections in May 2010 with more or less pro-european program despite decreasing support of eurozone in Czech public opinion. ČSSD, as well as ODS, only limitedly mentioned the OCA in their argumentation whereas they explained their attitude with other reasons. While ČSSD remained loyal to its pro European policy even after the election, ODS started diverting from their European agenda right after them. This process ended with their demand for referendum about the entry of Czech Republic to the Eurozone. Before the elections, Social Democrats were the ones to discuss this topic the most, but afterwards their rhetoric limited mostly to reactions to public statements and actions of ODS only.
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Political and social reflection of rivalry and cooperation in space
Nitra, Vojtěch ; Rak, Jiří (advisor) ; Kolenovská, Daniela (referee) ; Svoboda, Karel (referee)
The paper focuses on the so called "space race" which lasted more than twenty years. This is a rather broad term covering competition between the two superpowers (the US and the USSR) during the cold war. Therefore, this thesis pays only minimal attention to particular projects and entirely leaves out technical details. Instead, it explores efforts to venture into space as representing the apotheosis of scientific combat. It perceives competition and collaboration in this area to be symbolic manifestations of the rivalry and collaboration taking place between the superpowers in the late 20th century. Attention is paid chiefly to the conditions and causes underlying the rivalry but also to its consequences as well as the impact made by overcoming symbolic milestone in space on the general global politics. The paper thus deals with political, economic, social and scientific conditions of space programmes and presentation of the achievements attained. It describes the process of human venturing (especially by the US and the USSR) into space from its very beginning. It chronologically looks at prior stages to end up in our contemporary era and provides an outlook for the future.
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Expansion strategy of Russia's Gazprom into European market and European counteraction policy
Khayrullaev, Andrey ; Svoboda, Karel (advisor) ; Binhack, Petr (referee)
Author: Andrey Khayrullaev Title of the Thesis: EXPANSION STRATEGY OF RUSSIA'S GAZPROM INTO EUROPEAN MARKET AND EUROPEAN COUNTERACTION POLICY Year of defence: 2012 ABSTRACT In the period of globalization, energy security has substantial implications for the mutual security of supply and demand. It is dependent on several factors as security of supply, resilience and interdependence. As the result, multi-national corporations controlling wide energy resources are becoming more and more involved in the international politics - the situation when supplier is not just one of the contractual parities but "tool" for political pressure of its host state. Russian Gazprom, which operates on European natural gas market, is the vivid example of such situation. The research project is based on a deep review of relevant literature sources using the data analyzing, comparative analysis and the case study methods. The main research questions are the following: are European "fears" justified and what are the perspectives for Europe to decrease its dependency on Russian natural gas export? The main conclusions to be drawn from this study are that Europe has full grounds to be against growing dependence on Gazprom, taking into account Gazprom's involvement into politics, its aggressive actions directed toward prevention of...
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The Impact of Theory of Optimal Currency Areas on Discursus of Political Parties ČSSD and ODS about the Entry to the Eurozone Between the Years 2010 - 2012
Müller, Lukáš ; Kasáková, Zuzana (advisor) ; Svoboda, Karel (referee)
This essay is about the theory of optimal currency areas (OCA) and its reflection in public discussion of two biggest political parties in Czech Republic - ODS and ČSSD, about Czech Republic entering the European Monetary Union (EMU). Although EMU hadn't met the criteria of OCA before the examined period, both parties entered the elections in May 2010 with more or less pro-european program despite decreasing support of eurozone in Czech public opinion. While ČSSD only limitedly mentioned the OCA in their agumentation and explained their attitude with other reasons, ODS pointed out the heterogenity of EMU, which avoided the eurozone from efective dealing with assymetric economic shocks. While ČSSD remained loyal to its pro European policy even after the election, ODS started diverting from their European agenda right after them. This process ended with their demand for referendum about the entry of Czech Republic to the Eurozone. Before the elections, Social Democrats were the ones to discuss this topic the most, but afterwards their rhetoric limited mostly to reactions to public statements and actions of ODS only.
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Evolution of Russian Middle Class in 1998-2008
Vojtíšková, Kristýna ; Svoboda, Karel (advisor) ; Horák, Slavomír (referee)
The existence of Russian middle class is often perceived as a condition for Russia's democratization and the country's economic progress is often mentioned in connection with the growth of the middle class and henceforth increased popular demand for transparent functioning of public institutions. However economic growth does not necessarily lead to more extensive middle class, especially not when the income inequality rises as was the case of Russia in the particular period. This thesis proves that Russian middle class grew between the years 1998 and 2008, it identifies its specific features and explains its evolution from the perspective of occupation and income. The data from Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, which the thesis is based on, confirm that while the Russian middle class was growing in size, growth in inequality was also observed, especially between cities and countryside and between individual economic sectors.
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