Russian oil and gas are banned in the United States. Coca-Cola and McDonald's no longer offer their treats to Russian eaters. Russian planes must circumvent the European skies. Russian banks can no longer do business abroad. The international press is muzzled in the country of Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin blocks access to Facebook and limits access to Twitter.
In recent days, Russia has descended into all-out isolation. Ties are broken at the initiative of Western leaders, who impose sanctions, of the Russian government, which seeks to control information, or of multinationals, which want to protect their reputation. The cut even affects a very important microcosm for the Russians, which had never been affected during the Cold War: the world of chess.
“This is unheard of! exclaims Richard Bérubé, the general manager of the Quebec Chess Federation, on the phone. The 44th Chess Olympiad, which was to be held in Moscow in July, will be relocated. Russian players can no longer fly the white-blue-red flag in international competitions. And the International Chess Federation (FIDE) is dumping its sponsors linked to the Russian state.
FIDE’s stand against Russia is surprising in the world of chess. In particular because its president, Arkadi Dvorkovitch, is close to Russian power (from 2012 to 2018, he was vice-president in the government of Dmitry Medvedev). Among elite Russian players, positions are divided on the war in Ukraine. but she was compelled to act.
The rift in the world of chess is a vivid example of those ties between Russia and the rest of the world, which were thought to be strong, but which broke in just a few days. Is a new Iron Curtain falling?
“Are we seeing something new, or is it simply the continuation of a relationship where the divorce was never well consummated? asks historian Carl Bouchard, peace specialist at the University of Montreal. On a historical scale, the last three decades could ultimately be just a parenthesis in relations between Russia and the West, strained since at least 1917.
During the Cold War, the Iron Curtain was a useful metaphor, but also a barrier of concrete and barbed wire. It served to "protect" the communist people from the influences "of capitalist imperialism and fascism", but also blocked emigration to the West.
According to Carl Bouchard, the conditions that cause Russia's current exclusion largely depend on the leader in place, that is, Vladimir Putin. The tensions will certainly last, but the conditions for a partition of the world as hermetic and as long as during the Cold War era would no longer be in place.
Russians flee
Historian Kristy Ironside, a specialist in Russia at McGill University, does not hesitate for a second to say that, in the economic sphere at least, a new iron curtain has been put in place. A curtain which harms the business of the Russian oligarchs, but which also affects the daily life of the citizens of the country.
Russians will feel the impact of sanctions “when products are off store shelves and when prices are higher,” says Ironside. They will also experience geographic isolation. For now, it is not completely impossible to get out of the country, but it is very difficult. And the ruble, already, is good for garbage.”
Mme Ironside, who did a post-doctorate in Moscow in 2014 and 2015, is worried about her colleagues in Russia. "If we continue to talk to them and work with them, they could have serious problems," she said. All of this is very scary. She has not yet dared to ask her collaborators if they intend to leave Russia, "because there are risks" for them to even answer the question.
This week, many Russians have declared in the media that they want to flee their country. Rumors of martial law and closed borders fuel this temporary or permanent exodus. Many are heading south, rather than west. Tbilisi reported Monday that 20,000 to 25,000 Russians have entered Georgia in recent days.
The new iron curtain is also falling in an area that was non-existent during the Cold War: the Internet.
Major companies are disconnecting themselves in protest. The Kremlin blocks certain social networks to better control information. Ukraine is also getting involved, demanding that Russia be unplugged outright from the great digital web as a form of punishment. The Internet regulator, ICANN, however, rejected the request on March 2.
As a backdrop, Moscow has been working for several years to prepare an Internet network completely independent of that of the rest of the world, according to a BBC article published on Wednesday. "I wouldn't be surprised to see this plan put into action in the next few weeks or months," James Griffiths, author of The Great Firewall of China, told British media.
In parallel with the economic sanctions, a "boycott" of sportsmen, artists and other Russian representatives is set in motion. Let us think in particular of the Orchester symphonique de Montréal, which canceled the concerts of the young pianist Alexander Malofeev. This trend worries Ms. Ironside, who fears that the Kremlin propaganda arm is turning the stories into examples of “Russophobia” on the part of the West.
The exclusion of Russians from the world of chess is another example that instruments that once served to ensure a certain “peaceful coexistence” between East and West are now evaporating. Civil society boycotts “are movements that are much more passionate,” says Carl Bouchard. It is something much more fragile, much less controllable” than state relations.
