[War & Business] Putin and Novorossiya

On the 18th (local time), Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, appeared at the 8th anniversary event of the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula held at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and took the podium. Moscow (Russia) = EPA · Yonhap News Photo by EPA · Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] As the Russian military, trapped in a protracted war in Ukraine, has shifted to defensive operations across key occupied areas from the eastern Donbas region to the Crimean Peninsula, the dynamics of the war are changing. Rumors are spreading that the Russian forces intend to consolidate these occupied territories into a so-called “Novorossiya” republic and incorporate it into the Russian Federation.

Novorossiya is a concept that first emerged during Russia’s forced annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. It involves partitioning the entire Black Sea coastal cities?from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions occupied by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Russia, to Mariupol, Crimea, Kherson, and Odesa?away from Ukraine and annexing them to the Russian Federation.

The term Novorossiya, literally meaning “New Russia,” first appeared in history in the 18th century. In 1783, Catherine the Great, the Russian Empress, destroyed the Crimean Khanate that controlled the Black Sea coast and established a direct administrative territory in the area named Novorossiya.

The Vladimir Putin administration deliberately uses the name Novorossiya to emphasize that these regions are former Russian territories that must be reclaimed. This strengthens the war’s justification by reinforcing “Slavic nationalism,” a key political base for President Putin, and by portraying the war as a great achievement to stabilize his lifelong rule.

However, the 18th-century Novorossiya strategy was not merely an imperialistic expansionist war. The Crimean Khanate had raided all across Russia for over 300 years since the 15th century, capturing more than 20,000 residents annually as slaves. Because of this, all Russians raised no objections to that war.

But Putin’s Novorossiya is perceived as an unjustified invasion. Although the country was divided after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the two nations maintained freer trade and communication than any other regions, which has now been completely destroyed.

More than 10 million Russian citizens were born in Ukraine, and it is said to be rare to find someone without Ukrainian relatives. Even Sergey Shoigu, the Russian Defense Minister known to have encouraged Putin to wage war, reportedly has maternal relatives from Ukraine. Due to this war, joint ventures in raw materials, agriculture, ports, and space projects that had continued even after Ukraine’s independence are now being blocked one after another.

As the popularity of Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration, which had been criticized for various corruption scandals, rises again, voices criticizing Putin’s war are growing louder even within Russia. There is hope that Putin will regain his image as a strategist who always acted in the national interest since coming to power.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.