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relations with the Russian Federation. How the idea of Russia was constructed in the competing
conceptions of the national or state identity in each country determined whether or not each state
accounted for Russia’s interests in its calculation of its own interests.
National security choices
When Estonia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine gained their independence, national security issues
were on the top of their political agendas. The presence of Russian soldiers and Russian-
controlled military bases in each former Soviet republic made the construction of new relations
with Russia a top priority. In Estonia were stranded more than 36,000 Russian troops, occupying
three air defense bases and one bomber base. Estonia was also the home of the headquarters of
the Northern Group of the Baltic Sea Fleet.
3
In Kazakhstan, the Soviet government made
extensive use of the Baikonur Cosmodrome as a missile test site and a launch site for space
vehicles and satellites.
4
It is the world’s largest space launch facility, covering 6,717 km
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in
southern Kazakhstan. Although Russia eventually evolved Baikonur into just space station, the
Soviet government built the complex to develop and test intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Complete with oxygen and nitrogen-producing plants, three fueling facilities, a power station and
six hundred energy-converting stations, and two airports, Baikonur was a strategic military
asset.
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Finally, Ukraine was home to the Black Sea Fleet, which was the Soviet Union’s second
largest naval fleet. When the Soviet Union collapsed, there were at least three hundred warships
and submarines and 47,000 Russian personnel serving the fleet.
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Russia’s military presence equaled a potential threat to the independence of these former
Soviet republics. Russian nationalists and communists called for the creation of a new union
controlled by Moscow, and across the ideological spectrum in Moscow politicians warned that
Convention