Abstract
What role does Russia play for Nordic regional cooperation? And how should the Nordic countries behave when there are suddenly two actors who both claim to represent the interests of Russia - the union authorities and the Russian republic? These two questions are discussed in the following article. To study Soviet/Russian Nordic policy, an analytical framework is constructed with the security problem of the USSR as its point of departure. Both "internal" and "external" aspects of national security are taken into consideration according to Barry Buzan's wider security concept. The study concentrates on the period November 1990 to May 1991. The author concludes that it is important that the Nordic countries establish direct contacts with the Russian republic and with individual Russian regions in the vicinity, while keeping the old diplomatic relations with the union government.
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