Russia freezes Novorossiya project

The Russian government has frozen the structures of its Novorossiya project, reported one its leaders, former Ukrainian MP Oleg Tsariov, on a social networking site on May 20. Its existence violates the Minsk cease-fire accords and neither him, nor his political allies, will be able to influence the situation in Donbas, he reported. Novorossiya has ceased to be a necessary project in the view of the government, the gazeta .ru news site reported, citing anonymous sources. The main priority is to keep Donetsk and Luhansk within Ukraine’s borders and not expand the territory controlled by spearatists, the report said.

Zenon Zawada: Russian President Putin behaved recklessly when declaring in April the existence of a Novorossiya state in southeastern Ukraine, with the clear intent of breaking it off from Ukraine. It was then widely speculated that he’d be supporting military actions and fomenting separatist movements along Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coastline.

Instead Putin and his advisers proved humiliated when the only critical mass to join their separatist project surfaced in the easternmost Dontesk and Luhansk regions. It has become clear that Putin is surrounded by people who don’t understand Ukraine, nor did they properly plan for creating the necessary political movements in Ukraine to support their political aims.

It’s not impossible for the residents of the remaining territory of southeastern Ukraine to join the pro-Russian separatists. But it’s extremely unlikely and would require only the most brutal economic conditions to convince them of the need for cheap Russian oil and natural gas. The disastrous experience of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics has trimmed the supporters of Novorossiya to only the most radical pro-Russian citizens of Ukraine.