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Borderless and Deterritorialized World – Global Trends?

Previously borders were defined as "profitable" and "unprofitable", "natural" and "artificial" that quite often caused territorial claims and even aggression. Nowadays the European and North American integration caused the other extreme the myth of borders’

 

 

absence. However, according to the Russian research, internationalization of public life will never lead to the "boundless" world. Vice versa this process depends on the global space where the capital flow demands "potential difference" between territorial units. So that the flobal system requires differences, and borders support them (Kolosov, 320).

The fact that globalization decreases the barrier function of borders is obvious for all the researchers. The contact function of borders promotes international economic activity of border regions and strengthens the innovative component in social and economic development of frontier territories. The visa-free regime is an indicator of the contact function of borders becoming stronger.

Speaking about borders of the Russian Federation, it is necessary to mention that the Russian Federation is the most extensive country of the world according to its area. The length of the border of the Russian Federation is 61 089.56 km. Russia has land and sea borders with 16 countries. The majority of subjects of the Russian Federation have external borders. More than 13 000 km of the Russian border is a new border. Mainly these are the borders with the former Soviet republics that nowadays form the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).

Russia has land borders with 14 states, 8 of them are the former soviet republics. The length of land frontier with Norway is 195.8 km, with Finland — 1271.8 km. Russia has sea borders with 12 countries. The length of sea border with Norway is 23.3 km (the Barents Sea), with Finland — 54 km (the Gulf of Finland) (Limology, 30-31)

The Northwest borders of the Russian Federation are land and sea ones with the countries of Northern Europe. Location and the legal status of border with Finland and Norway didn't change during 90s. However the neighbour countries changed. Finland entered the EU, the political system in Russia changed, and the subjects of the Russian Federation were authorized to organize their external activity. As a result social characteristics of the border changed. It became more contact. The the border cooperation increased, as well as the quantity of people and goods crossing it. So this part of the Russian border appeared to be in a more advantageous economic situation in comparison to the other ones. Proximity to the European Union had the crucial influence. The money the EU gave to organize the borders, as well as the high level of cross-border cooperation in Europe, allowed the Russian regions to become an essential part of this process.

 

 

Russian-Norwegian border. Boris Gleb. Photo P. Haugseth/UIT-The Arctic University of Norway



 

The border of Russia with the countries of the Northern Europe includes the Russian-Finnish and Russian-Norwegian parts. The Murmansk Region has the part of border with Norway that is 196 km long. The border with Finland starts from the Gulf of Finland and ends on the coast of the Barents Sea (around 1300 km) (Limology, 35)

During the Soviet era the Soviet-Finnish border was the longest border between a capitalist country and the socialist state, representing the closed ideological border. With the end of the Cold War its status changed. On Finland entering the EU in 1995 the Russian-Finnish border became the unique border between a EU country and Russia. From the Russian side this border concerns three subjects: St. Petersburg, the Republic of Karelia and the Murmansk

 

 

Region (for more details see: Passi A. (1999) Borders as Social Practice and Discourse: The Finnish-Russian Border // Regional Studies. Vol. 33. 7. pp. 669-680).

At first the Russian-Norwegian land border was established as the border between the Russian and Swedish possessions. In 1920 the Soviet republic handed over the Pechenga Region (close to Norway) to Finland according to the conditions of the Soviet-Finnish (Yuryevsky) peace treaty of 1920. So that the Russian-Norwegian land border ceased to exist. It was restored in 1947, after the end of the Second World War, when the Pechenga Region was returned to the USSR (for more details see: Viken A., Granås B., Nuseth T. (2008) Kirkenes: An Industrial Site Reinvented as a Border Town//Acta Borealia. Vol. 25. 1. Pp. 24-44).

There are countries the Russian citizens that can visit without any visa, where the visa is put on the border, or under special or facilitated conditions and with the minimal period of visa registration. Russia has Intergovernmental Agreements on cancellation of visas with Poland (The Agreement on Cancellation of Visas for the Inhabitants of the Border Territories: the Kaliningrad Region of the Russian Federation and the North of Pomor and Varminsko-Mazursky Provinces of Poland) and Norway.

The visa-free regime to enter Norway was established since May 29, 2012 for the inhabitants of the border cities and settlements of the Murmansk Region (Nickel, Pechenga, Zapolyarniy and Korzunov). As a result Norway expects to increase its inflow of tourists, and the Russian border area has hopes for the infrastructure development.

The introduction of the visa-free regime on the border of Norway and the Murmansk Region is seen by both countries in a different way with dominating positive reviews from the Norwegian side. The director of the independent non-profit organization “Norwegian Barents secretariat” Rune Rafaelsen declared that there was no special need in the special regime of the

 

Norwegian-Russian border for the 30-kilometer border zone. Only a few will profit from it. It was possible to reach the same thing using simpler means. The Finnish experience on the Norwegian-Russian border of the Schengen space could have been used (http://www enough. newsbalt.ru/detail/?ID=4636). Ruslan Ustrakhanov well-known for his anti-Norwegian statements writes that the advertised visa-free border regime between Norway and Russia is favourable to the Norwegians. The people living in Sør-Varanger can go to Russia and buy cheap fuel for their cars. And not only fuel. Inhabitants of the Pechengsky Region will leave the earned money in shops of the Norwegian commune (www.newsbalt.ru/detail/?ID=3019). Many people mention that the new document gives only a few rights, i. e. to travel to the Sør-Varanger commune that is considered to be a depressive region (http://ria.ru/world/20120529/659627877.html#ixzz22yymt7W8)

Finland gives an example of the real "visa tolerance” to citizens of the Russian Federation. Almost 98 % of the people crossing the Russian-Finnish border, as well as going to the Schengen states, do it using the Finnish multiple entry visas. In the Murmansk Region the Finns give the Russians a big quantity of multiple entry visas, more than the consulate of Norway. (http://prian.ru/news/22521.html)

 


Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1013


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