BAKU TRIES AMERICAN UNIFORM
by Sokhbet Mamedov

Nezavisimaya Gazeta, No 262, p.8
RusData Dialine – Russian Press Digest
December 4, 2006 Monday

Russia’s zone of influence in former Soviet Union is shrinking fast

The elite unit of the Azerbaijani national army, the Baku Corps,
is adopting NATO standards, and the news is highly unexpected,
especially for Moscow. Unlike neighboring Georgia, which has been
loudly proclaiming its support for NATO, Azerbaijan has so far tried
to downplay its contacts with the alliance in order to placate Russia.

Russia does not conceal its interest in Azerbaijan, and it is
developing contacts in all possible spheres of cooperation, including
military and political. Yet it seems that its foothold, both in
Azerbaijan and in the entire region, has weakened. The imperial aspect
of Moscow’s presence in the South Caucasus is exhausted, while attempts
to restore its influence economically have not achieved much.

Apparently, Baku understands very well that the NATO membership of
its neighbor and strategic partner Georgia is now almost certain,
and that this will begin the alliance’s expansion into the South
Caucasus, and farther, into Central Asia. Then, any talk of Russia
restoring its military and political influence in the southern part
of the former Soviet Union will sound like a pipe dream.

Moscow has not welcomed Baku’s move. But Azerbaijan understands that
the Kremlin cannot prevent these developments. It is quite likely that
further development of military contacts with NATO and of economic
relations with Russia will be a trump card for Azerbaijan in further
discussions related to Nagorno-Karabakh’s status.

Armenia, however, is aware of that, and is already moving in order
not to be outmaneuvered. So, while preserving the military-political
strategic union with Moscow, Yerevan is also trying to improve its
relations with Brussels, cautiously but consistently.

The Baltic countries, Ukraine and Georgia, which might join NATO
soon, and Azerbaijan, which might follow later, constitute a "cordon
sanitaire" that is restoring around Russia one that the international
community built around the new Bolshevik state in the first quarter
of the 20th century.