Russia has Already Lost the South Caucasus and will Eventually Lose the North as Well, El Murid Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 19 – What is taking place in Armenia shows that Russia has already lost the South Caucasus, Anatoly Nesmiyan who blogs under the screen name El Murid, says; and that means that when Moscow can’t control the North Caucasus by bribery or force, it will lose the North Caucasus as well.

            The reason this is happening, he continues, is that the Kremlin doesn’t approach others using a balance of the two basic values which define how most people see the world but rather it seeks to gain influence and maintain power at home and abroad by force or corruption (t.me/anatoly_nesmiyan/17277 reposted at kasparov.ru/material.php?id=65F9CCB7663FD).

            But that doesn’t work, those already independent of Russia will move away from it; and those within the country will do so whenever the money or the ability to use force run out. The ethics of thieves, if one can call their values that, repel everyone. The only difference is whether those against whom these values are directed are on one side of the border or the other.

            As long as the Kremlin continues its current approach, El Murid includes, Moscow will continue to lose as friends its neighbors and its periphery as part of the state it claims. “Until we sanitize our territory and wash away this pathogenic mold,” he concludes, “the situation around us isn’t going to change.”