Russian President Vladimir Putin is engaged in a series of meetings, and intensive diplomatic offensives to outflank destabilization moves and calm the Caucasus region. He is very aware of the historical dangers of war provoked in this area, going back centuries, in which an incident in one location, can spill over to the whole region. As recently as the 1990s and 2000s the British launched destabilization operations in the South Caucasus, when Putin was President or Prime Minister.
On Nov. 9, Putin directly engaged the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia to reach a settlement to put a potential end to the fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave (see separate slug).
On Nov. 12, Putin held a phone conversation with Kyrgyzstan’s Prime Minister and Acting President Sadyr Japarov. On Oct. 5, 2020, parliamentary election results in Kyrgyzstan were disputed, leading to protests and demonstrations. On Oct. 13, as a result of the disputes, Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov resigned, pending the outcome of new elections. The destabilization appeared to be following a path in the aftermath of the Aug. 9 Belarus election; the ongoing war over Nagorno-Karabakh, etc. According to TASS coverage yesterday of the Putin-Japarov phone call, Acting President Japarov expressed “special gratitude” to Russia for the “support provided to Kyrgyzstan in the fight against the coronavirus infection.” He congratulated Putin “on his successful chairmanship” of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization during its Nov. 10 Heads of State meeting, which includes Kyrgyzstan; and reassured Putin that Bishkek looks to “continue developing ties with Russia in the spirit of alliance and strategic partnership.”
Also on Nov. 12, Putin met in Sochi with the Abkhazia’s President Aslan Bzhania. Located on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, Abkhazia declared its sovereignty from Georgia in 1990, after Western forces had used Georgia to inflame the Caucasus into warfare, as Lyndon LaRouche exposed in his film “Storm Over Asia.” Abkhazia won its independence from Georgia, which sought to join NATO, in 2008. It is likely that Putin and Bzhania discussed what would be necessary to keep the Caucasus calm, against British Empire destabilization efforts. In their meeting, Bzhania expressed his “gratitude to the Defense Ministry for the hospital they have set up in Abkhazia. Russian medics are providing invaluable assistance: Russian doctors have been working in shifts at the Gudauta hospital during the past few months. This is truly invaluable assistance in the current circumstances.”
