Russia and Ukraine

[Leonardo17]

Armenians are going to the polls today. And everyone is hoping that the current pro-EU / Pro-US prime-minister Nikol Pashinyan will be re-elected. What is very interesting is how Moscow is pushing for the election of another pro-Russia / Pro-oligarch candidate. And their methods of propaganda through fake news are really amazing. They made AI generated videos showing Azerbaijanis (the main regional opponent of Armenia) boarding busses and traveling to Yerevan where they will be settled in the hundreds of houses the government is providing them for free. Putin is also threatening them with higher gas priced and not buying of Armenian products. (35% of Armenian exports are going to Russia).

 

So the US and the EU are stepping in to buy more of the Armenian products. + Azerbaijan and Turkey are stepping in, building a new natural gas pipeline through Azerbaijani territory that bypasses both Russia and Iran to Supply this country (and Europe) with central Asian natural gas (and other trade commodities too).

 

Georgia is also turning more and more toward the EU with Russia applying similar tactics and threatening them to become another Ukraine if they were to decide to leave the Russian orbit.

 

So Putin has created another system based on oppression that is supposed to prevent his version of Russia from collapsing.

 

The debate is not whether if this is possible or not. It’s just that the whole concept is outdated. Why is he trying to save an empire that simply doesn’t exist anymore?