Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 6 – In the face of
the Khabarovsk protests, Moscow is increasingly nervous about the fact that residents of the
Russian Far East look more often to Pacific rim countries than to European
Russia, a pattern that reflects geographic realities and seems set only to
intensify in the coming years.
Nine years ago, a Korean ferry
company opened weekly service between Vladivostok, on the one hand, and South
Korean and Japanese ports, on the other. Now, a Korean firm has announced plans
to open a second ferry next year to more than double the movement of people in
both directions (minvr.gov.ru/press-center/news/27301/
and asiarussia.ru/news/25008/).
That
new link will make it even easier both absolutely and relatively for people in
the Russian Far East to visit those two Pacific rim countries than to travel to
Moscow, which is much further away, is connected by few roads, a week-long
train trip, and air links that are both ever more expensive and irregular.
The
plans of the Hanchang Ferry Cruise company have received Russian government
approval because they have been cast primarily as a way to boost tourist visits
by Japanese and Korean nationals and bring badly needed tourist dollars to the
region. But they will also allow – and this
is more important politically – more Far Easterners to go in the opposite
direction.
Many
Russians already make regular visits into China, but this diversification of
destinations will highlight to them the fact that Pacific rim states with very
different political and social systems than China’s are also having enormous
success economically and thus can serve as a model for the Russian Far
East.
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