Gang Warfare and State Building
The Future of the Donbass
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The cease-fire in the Donbass is fragile, but Russia has already embarked on state-building. Since most senior officials from the Yanukovych era fled the terror of separatist fighters in July 2014, Moscow lacks men with administrative experience. Third-rate officials or small-business owners have been installed at the top of the “people’s republics”. The “people’s mayors” have no control over the local fighters, and the “people’s militia” are merely armed groups. The occupied territory therefore consists of a conglomerate of local principalities. The attempt to establish a central authority has failed most notably in the area of Luhansk. There, conflicts between influential field commanders regularly escalate.
(Osteuropa 1-2/2015, pp. 5–22)