Authors in this article present the findings of the second stage of the research project on the leadership and the ethnopolitics in Tatarstan. From the chronological and problematic perspective they analyze the transformation of the model of leadership in the republic. Much attention has been paid to the relationship between the format of leadership of the following presidents and their styles of doing politics. On the basis of the analysis the authors come to the conclusion that ethnocratism, which in Tatatarstan has been an important source of the political leadership of the leader and the local elite, seems to lose its ability to adapt and create and generates more and more dysfunction and pathology. Moderate policy of ethnopolitisation and Islamisation promoted by the leader and ethnoelite, which can be perceived as a major justification for its power in relations with the federal center, is being challenged by many social groups. The evidence of this tendency is inter alia the increase of the inter-ethnic tensions and progressive Islamisation of political life in the republic.

The subject of this article is the analysis of the conflict between the Russian Federation and Georgia in 2008. The conflict has opened a new stage in Russia’s strategic drive to make decisions and implement them in areas recognized as important for the security of the country, even if they are outside its borders. The Georgian case clearly indicated that Russia wants to maintain its dominant position in the entire post-Soviet area. The region of the Caucasus remains an extremely important area for Russia, where it wants to maintain strategic control. The author proves in his article that the main determinants influencing the policy of the Russian Federation in the Caucasus region are: maintaining the greatest possible impact on the internal situation of the countries of the region, the maximum hindering possible integration with the Euro-Atlantic structures, the largest economic dependence on Russia, taking control over key sectors of the economy, maintaining military presence, isolation of the North Caucasus from Georgia, maintaining a monopoly on energy supplies, interest in Azeri mineral resources, striving to take over control of natural gas transport.
The Russian-Georgian conflict of 2008 was one of the elements of Russia’s demonstration of the consequences of maintaining its dominant position in the post-Soviet area. The sphere of influence extends not only to Eastern Europe but also to the socalled Putin’s doctrine extends, in fact, to the entire area of the former USSR.

Independence referenda in Catalonia and the reaction of the European Union

The article deals with the issues of independence referenda in Catalonia and the reaction of the European Union to them. These referenda were held in 2014 and 2017, with no approval from the Spanish government. At the beginning of the 21 st century, regionalist and nationalist movements have developed in the Member States of the European Union. An important determinant of these centrifugal forces was the economic crisis in Europe, which activated separatist tendencies in the economically developed regions of the EU. An ex- ample of such secessionism is Catalonia, where there was a revival of regional nationalism manifested by the wave of separatist movements. Disputes over the independence of Catalonia have been an important topic of consideration in the European Union in the context of its integrity. This text concentrates on the causes, course, and consequences of the independence referenda in Catalonia as well as on the EU’s reactions to the Catalonian crisis.

Today, the (Western) geopolitics dominant in the decade following the Cold War must consider the rivalling (Eastern) geopolitics. The present article deals with the use of the military bases situated abroad to support separatism in neighbouring countries. In the relations between Abkhazia, Southern Ossetia, Georgia and Russia in 1989 – 2008, special attention is paid to the periods of political standstill when the war was continued as the war of statements conducted by representative bodies in which even the UN Security Council came to be included. The article also focuses on the change of geopolitical visions of Georgia following the Rose Revolution or the waning of the myths of Shevardnadze and Russia’s foreign policy intentions.

Znaczenie Kaukazu Północnego dla bezpieczeństwa Federacji Rosyjskiej

The article is dedicated to the dilemmas of post-imperial statehood in the context of Russian Federation security, with the particular emphasis on the fundamental alternative: to maintain the polyethnic (quasi-imperial) model of state or to build a nation state. The Author defines the concept of „empire” from the point of view of three determinants: the concentric structure based on center-periphery dichotomy, orientation towards the external mission and imperial idea. From this point of view, Russia is an imperial state (contrary to Tsarist Empire and USSR), neither is a typical nation state. The Author tries to prove that The author tries to demonstrate that the abandonment of federal, multinational state model would be tantamount to the loss of strategically important North Caucasus, which would deprive it of a regional power status. The study contains a multi-faceted exploration of the North Caucasus (which is a highly turbulent region) as a key territory for the global dimension of geostrategy. The Author analyzes potential threats to North Caucasian security and actions taken by Moscow in order to prevent them. He pays attention to the growing popularity of slogans about the necessity of separation of Caucasus and Russia. In his opinion, Caspian-Black Sea Region would become a zone of global destabilization, posing a threat to the world peace.