Dr. Cristian BARNA*

https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-design-black-sea-extending-buffer-zone

Abstract. In his European „rimland”, the proximity to a Russian-phobic Europe, fearsome of traumatic reminiscences of the Cold War represents a worrying factor for the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation cannot tolerate „tight frontiers” that will not allow it to implement an „in-depth” defense strategy, like it was in the situations against Napoleon and Hitler.

Hence, the Russian Federation seeks to be surrounded by „buffer areas”, such as Kaliningrad, Belarus, Eastern Ukraine, Trans-Dniester, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, upon which it can exert its influence and gain access to the Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Caspian Sea, forcing its way through the Euro-Atlantic „rimland” consisting of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Georgia, located in the near proximity of the Russian „heartland”.

* Profesor universitar doctor, Academia Naţională de Informaţii „Mihai Viteazul”, Bucureşti