Russia's Diamond Colony

Russia's Diamond Colony PDF

Author: John Tichotsky

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-02

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 1134413939

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This study looks at the reform process in Sakha and at a one hundred year history of economic development. The research revealed that Sakha's progress has always been determined by the export of key resources.

Blood, Sweat and Earth

Blood, Sweat and Earth PDF

Author: Tijl Vanneste

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2021-09-16

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1789144361

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A sweeping history of our enduring passion for diamonds—and the exploitative industry that fuels it. Blood, Sweat and Earth is a hard-hitting historical exposé of the diamond industry, focusing on the exploitation of workers and the environment, the monopolization of uncut diamonds, and how little this has changed over time. It describes the use of forced labor and political oppression by Indian sultans, Portuguese colonizers in Brazil, and Western industrialists in many parts of Africa—as well as the hoarding of diamonds to maintain high prices, from the English East India Company to De Beers. While recent discoveries of diamond deposits in Siberia, Canada, and Australia have brought an end to monopolization, the book shows that advances in the production of synthetic diamonds have not yet been able to eradicate the exploitation caused by the world’s unquenchable thirst for sparkle.

Sino–Russian Policies in the Center and Periphery

Sino–Russian Policies in the Center and Periphery PDF

Author: Samra Sarfraz Khan

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-03-10

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1666910589

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This book is a comparative study of Chinese and Russian policies in their respective inner peripheries. As the inner peripheries of the two states are rather vast, a selected number of regions have been chosen from the two geographical expanses. These regions are not only rich in hydrocarbons and minerals but also serve as conduits of the same. Moreover, the geographical position of the Caucasus provides Russia with an ingress into the Transcaucasia; a region that has often presented Moscow with serious challenges in international politics. Similarly, Xinjiang and Tibet serve as supply bases of hydrocarbon and mineral, and as conduits of the same to the Chinese regime. In addition to this, while Tibet serves as China’s anchorage in Himalayas and a buffer zone against the Indian threat, Xinjiang is China’s gateway to the resource rich Central Asian market. With both Russia and China on the path of changing the post-Soviet unipolar order; insights on Sino-Russian ties and the various challenges and opportunities available to the two states are inevitable for any reader trying to understand the complexity of international politics in general and of Chinese and Russian politics in particular of the twenty-first century.

Russian America

Russian America PDF

Author: Ilya Vinkovetsky

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-04-06

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9780199838387

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From 1741 until Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867, the Russian empire claimed territory and peoples in North America. In this book, Ilya Vinkovetsky examines how Russia governed its only overseas colony, illustrating how the colony fit into and diverged from the structures developed in the otherwise contiguous Russian empire. Russian America was effectively transformed from a remote extension of Russia's Siberian frontier penetrated mainly by Siberianized Russians into an ostensibly modern overseas colony operated by Europeanized Russians. Under the rule of the Russian-American Company, the colony was governed on different terms than the rest of the empire, a hybrid of elements carried over from Siberia and imported from rival colonial systems. Its economic, labor, and social organization reflected Russian hopes for Alaska, as well as the numerous limitations, such as its vast territory and pressures from its multiethnic residents, it imposed. This approach was particularly evident in Russian strategies to convert the indigenous peoples of Russian America into loyal subjects of the Russian Empire. Vinkovetsky looks closely at Russian efforts to acculturate the native peoples, including attempts to predispose them to be more open to the Russian political and cultural influence through trade and Russian Orthodox Christianity. Bringing together the history of Russia, the history of colonialism, and the history of contact between native peoples and Europeans on the American frontier, this work highlights how the overseas colony revealed the Russian Empire's adaptability to models of colonialism.

The Territories of the Russian Federation 2006

The Territories of the Russian Federation 2006 PDF

Author: Dominic Heaney

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 9781857433579

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7 The Territories of the Russian Federation 2006 offers a diverse collection of political and economic information on the Russian Federation and its eighty-nine constituent units. The Introduction examines the Russian Federation as a whole, and consists of an essay written by acknowledged experts, focusing on the economic relationship between the federal subjects and the state, followed by a chronology, demographic and economic statistics, and a review of the federal Government. The second section comprises Territorial Surveys, with a chapter on each of Russia's eighty-nine federal subjects. Each chapter includes: * A map, plus a description of location, topography, area and population * Details of the history of the territory, followed by information on the recent and existing political situation * An economic survey, presenting the latest available data on transport, agriculture, industry, external trade, finance and employment * A directory listing essential names and addresses for the leading political officials. The third and fourth parts comprise a select bibliography of books and Indexes, listing the territories alphabetically, with a gazetteer of alternative names, and by both Federal Okrug and economic area. Key features: * A comprehensive overview of the Russian Federation * Offers an analysis and understanding of the country's regional dimension * Invaluable directories of important territorial contacts * Detailed and accurate political, economic and statistical information * Some 100 current maps * Extensive information from a wide variety of sources, many of which are unavailable in English.

Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union

Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union PDF

Author: Julian Agyeman

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13:

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An examination of the awareness of environmental and social justice issues in the former Soviet republics--from the Western-style democracies of the Baltic region to the totalitarian regimes of Central Asia--and the resulting activism in those states. The legacy of environmental catastrophe in the states of the former Soviet Union includes desertification, pollution, and the toxic aftermath of industrial accidents, the most notorious of which was the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. This book examines the development of environmental activism in Russia and the former Soviet republics in response to these problems and its effect on policy and planning. It also shows that because of increasing economic, ethnic, and social inequality in the former Soviet states, debates over environmental justice are beginning to come to the fore. The book explores the varying environmental, social, political, and economic circumstances of these countries--which range from the Western-style democracies of the Baltic states to the totalitarian regimes of Central Asia--and how they affect the ecological, environmental, and public health. Among the topics covered are environmentalism in Russia (including the progressive nature of its laws on environmental protection, which are undermined by overburdened and underpaid law enforcement); the effect of oil wealth on Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan; the role of nationalism in Latvian environmentalism; the struggle of Russia's indigenous peoples for environmental justice; public participation in Estonia's environmental movement; and lack of access to natural capital in Tajikistan. Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union makes clear that although fragile transition economies, varying degrees of democratization, and a focus on national security can stymie progress toward "just sustainability," the diverse states of the former Soviet Union are making some progress toward "green" and environmental justice issues separately.