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August 29, 2025
There’s a tragic article of faith in the Russian imagination: Greatness – preferably oversized, preferably maritime. Without it, they say, there’ll be no GDP growth, no public happiness, no spiritual sunrise.
Hence the endless geopolitical grumbling:
And if your nation/region has no access to the sea – sit tight in your steppe and keep quiet, son. Stay poor, stay envious – but above all, don’t dream. Otherwise, some old sea dog in a general’s cap will cut off your supplies. Familiar, humiliating – and… completely unnecessary.
You can thrive without the sea – ask Switzerland or Austria. Or, bold as it sounds, Botswana – if you use your wits, your resources, and your right to choose.
Time to stop envying the oceans and start learning from those who’ve done just fine without empires or coastlines. That’s especially relevant for those in the still-occupied (by imperial Muscovy) Tatarstan, Chuvashia, Smolensk, Buryatia, Pskov, Altai, the Urals, Tuva, Khakassia, Ingushetia, Oirat-Kalmykia, Bashkortostan, etc.
Geography shapes how we see the world. That feels obvious – until reality shows it’s more complicated. Location matters, yes – but not in the deterministic way people assume.
The old obsession with a seaport made sense when ports and sea lanes minted wealth and set the global balance of power. Today, in an age of technology, innovation, and globalization, geography is much less of a life sentence.
To the imperial “consciousness” fogged by tales of a “world conspiracy against Poor Mother Russia”, Botswana is just savanna, lions, and hunger.
In reality, it’s one of Africa’s success stories:
Landlocked, once poor and under London’s thumb, Botswana became one of Africa’s most stable and successful states after independence in 1966. Diamonds were key, of course. But it wasn’t just natural resources, but governance that proved decisive.
Unlike many of its peers, Botswana dodged the “resource curse.” It invested in education, healthcare, and infrastructure, kept governance relatively transparent, and cultivated a private sector.
By the 1990s it led Africa in per-capita GDP, with steady growth driven by prudent management of resource revenues.
The secret? Plain as daylight: don’t steal.
Don’t turn oil, gas, or diamonds into the president’s family fund. Don’t pour the budget into “patriotic TV pageants” – build roads, hospitals, schools.
Botswana spends over 20% of its budget on education. It doesn’t build “spiritual bonds”; it builds the future.
And it honors tradition without weaponizing it. The kgotla – local councils of elders – actually shape governance. Imagine that: not a “Congress of the One True Party” but living democracy.
Since 1966, not a single coup. In Africa! Unlike… Muscovy.
Mongolia isn’t just Genghis Khan – whom local textbooks either demonize or ignore. It’s an independent democracy wedged between two powers that, if they could, would have swallowed it long ago.
They didn’t. Because Mongolians chose freedom.
The “third neighbor” strategy built ties with Western countries, Japan, and South Korea to avoid total dependence on its empire-sick dictatorial neighbors (the so-called “Russian Federation” and the PRC).
Yet they built an economy: exporting copper, coal, and gold – not national neuroses.
Their pride isn’t armaments but peaceful transfers of power, free elections, and Buddhist composure.
Lesson for post-Russian regions and nations: being a broker pays.
Between China and Kazakhstan, the Arctic and Central Asia, Europe and the Pacific – if you control the land, you control the routes.
Keep neighbors onside and you’re not “isolated”; you’re a logistics hub. Mongolia got it. Bashkortostan, the Urals, Siberia, Tatarstan, Buryatia, Chuvashia, and Sakha – not yet.
After the Velvet Divorce with Slovakia, Czechia could have slipped into Slavic gloom.
But it had engineers, work ethic, infrastructure, and brains – and, crucially, a public uninfected by the idea of “rising from their knees.”
Czechia isn’t exotic; it’s a historical frontrunner among landlocked states in the heart of Europe.
Without direct access to sea lanes, it nonetheless built one of Central Europe’s strongest economies. Why? A prime location at the hinge of Central and Western Europe, plus integration into the EU and NATO.
Plugged into global supply chains, Czechia leveraged its manufacturing strengths, built out transport links, and tied them to neighbors’ ports. It invested in a high-skilled workforce, industry, and its finance and tourism sectors.
Bottom line:
One of Central Europe’s wealthiest countries – Škoda cars shipped to dozens of nations, tourist-magnet Prague, world-class universities, and healthcare that heals instead of prescribing “patriotism against COVID.”
Lesson for post-Russian regions and nations: independence must have substance – not just anthems and flags, but jobs, factories, universities, and top-tier logistics.
Czechia has no sea – but it has neighbors’ ports, letting it export multiple times more than Primorsky Krai.
Imperial die-hards and simpletons will say: “Fine, but we’re Russia! Our history is complicated – so many peoples! The climate!”
Sorry, folks – you’re not “Russia”; you’re colonies stripped of agency.
Your history isn’t parades and wars; it’s how your nations built, learned, herded, mined, wrote poetry, and dreamed.
Your problem isn’t that you’re landlocked. Your problem is you were colonized, exploited, and told to be proud of it.
Yes, the future decolonization of the so-called “Russian Federation” raises hard questions: what about regions without a seacoast? Most new states will face the same hurdles Botswana, Mongolia, and Czechia faced.
The key lesson: geographic barriers aren’t a verdict. Steward your resources wisely, build resilient infrastructure, strengthen internal links, and run cooperative foreign policy.
Botswana, Mongolia, Czechia proved it: no port, still a future. No empire, still respect. With luck – and hard work – you’ll build your own “Prague” or “Gaborone.”
But to do that, you must ditch Moscow-centric thinking. Stop waiting for approval, money, or instructions from “the Center.”
Most of all, learn to love yourselves – not pseudo-historical myths about a “mission to gather the lands.”
Remember: many regions and nations still enslaved by imperial Moscow have enormous potential – from West Siberian oil and gas to diamonds in Sakha. Using that wealth locally, not for the metropolitan colonizer, is the key to prosperity for future post-Russian states.
In the end, geography is a condition, not a sentence. History is material to work with, not a burden.
And a nation isn’t “white folks with a tricolor,” but a community willing to take responsibility for its fate.
Botswana did. Czechia did. Mongolia did. Why can’t you?
You don’t need a fleet – you need purpose.
And by the way: the “Moscow Canal” still doesn’t make you a “port of five seas.”
