Russia has started withdrawing its peacekeepers from Nagorno-Karabakh. It’s shocking how Azerbaijan got away with depopulating entire region without being punished. But the fate of the region was determined by crude and disgusting realpolitik. For the West, the attack by its energy ally, Azerbaijan, against Russian-protected Nagorno-Karabakh presented an opportunity for opening a second front against Russia in the Caucasus. This would have stretched Russia’s resources as it waged a war of agression in Ukraine. Putin wouldn’t take the bait and preferred to abandon Armenia, which made it easier for him by its pro-Western re-orientation under Pashinyan. Not that he had any military options against the Azeri army - just look at the geography. Warmongering think-tanks celebrated Russia’s defeat which came at the cost of ethnic cleansing and the triumph of Azeri dictatorship over Armenian democracy. The population of Nagorno-Karabakh was betrayed and used by literally everyone in this ugly and shameful episode of history. Nagorno-Karabakh is worth remembering also because the first stage of that war in the fall of 2020 contributed to the argument that Ukraine could defeat Russia militarily - remember all the excitement about Bayraktars exuding from Atlantic Council and their likes. That excitement preceded Ukraine’s U-turn on peace talks with Russia in January 2021 which in its turn triggered Putin’s response as he began amassing troops on the Ukrainian border.
@leonidragozin You missed the important nuance that Nagornyi Karabakh is the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, and it matters more than kinds of regimes in Azerbaijan and Armenia. Armenia had plenty of time to solve the conflict by renewing Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.
@lapinlegal Kosovo undermined that argument somewhat
@leonidragozin @lapinlegal According to 4 UN Security Council resolutions, there is only "Nagorny-Karabakh region of the Azerbaijani Republic". That has always been the position of the international community. Kosovo situation does not apply here. 2001-2009.state.gov/p/eur/rls/or/1…
@leonidragozin @lapinlegal It is underappreciated just how much US and EU support for the illegal secession of #Kosovo undermined international law and the inviolability of recognised borders. And what for - a minor province. The West chose that hill to die on, for little obvious reward.
@leonidragozin @lapinlegal Kosovo example was deliberately ignored by the West when it came to Nagorno-Karabagh. Not all peoples are equal and the right to self-determination is applied selectively.
@leonidragozin @lapinlegal Kosovo, South Sudan, and East Timor before it.
@leonidragozin Thank God, my country still believes that Kosovo is Serbia and so do I.