Just Russia Party Calls for Annexing Qarabagh and Donbass

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 26 – The decision of the Artsakh government to declare Russian an official language has attracted a great deal of attention as a sign of the way the wind is blowing, but the decision itself is likely less meaningful than the fact the self-described Russian “peacekeepers” in Qarabagh have backed the continued operation of that Armenian structure.

            Indeed, one can hardly fail to note that most of the comments about the Artsakh government’s decision have been about what the officialization of Russian will mean for Moscow rather than what it means that Moscow and its peacekeepers are allowing that regime to act in such an independent way.

            But meanwhile, a far more significant indication of where Moscow might be heading occurred without getting the attention it deserved: the newly unified Just Russia-Patriots-For Truth Party has called for annexing not only eastern Ukraine but also Azerbaijan’s Qarabagh (turantoday.com/2021/03/karabakh-russia-putin-s-puppets.html).

            The party, one of the systemic parties that nominally is in opposition to the ruling United Russia Party but in almost all cases cooperates closely with the Kremlin and sometimes tests the waters for the regime, has made this a central plank in its platform in the upcoming Duma elections, Nikolay Novichkov, the head of the party’s central apparatus says.

            His party, the official says, believes that all territories which want to unite with Russisa should have the chance to do so and our compatriots, Russians, should recover the right to a motherland. Moreover, he says, “the only way” to solve the Qarabagh conflict “once and for all” is to unite the region to Russia. No other means exists.”