Opening embassies after closing the embassy: post- soviet countries’ motives in Latin America

Abstract

Before 1991, the former Soviet Union (SU) had embassies in a number of Latin American countries. After the collapse, the former Soviet republics, now independent states, separately established diplomatic relations with the Latin American countries. However, only few of them, with the exception of Russia, opened embassies to formalize the relationship. The interests of SU and its successor Russian Federation (RF) have been subject to thorough analyses however such analyses of motives of other post-Soviet countries in Latin America don’t exist yet. With this in mind the immediate objective of this essay has been to assess the motives of post-Soviet countries behind opening embassies in South and Central America, to discuss the determinants of their respective policies towards Latin America, the objectives they pursue through their respective diplomatic representations with a special focus on Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and the way it is reflected in their respective policies towards the countries of the region. The essay provokes series of yet unanswered questions of how the embassies of SU were transformed into Russian ones, whether other countries were claiming for equal rights, etc. This might become a fertile ground for a future research. Additionally, the anti-Armenian lobbying by Azerbaijan in the region is gaining strong momentum threatening Armenia’s standing in international arena hence the issue is of pivotal importance for Armenia that demands a special study.