CIS: REEK OF WAR
Yuri Simonjan
WPS Agency
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
July 1, 2009 Wednesday
Russia
TENSION IS MOUNTING IN THE RELATIONS BETWEEN NEIGHBORS IN THE
COMMONWEALTH; Tension is mounting all over the Commonwealth.
It will probably be worth it to take a look at the last week horoscope
which must have spelled something like aggressive Mars for the
Commonwealth. Tension mounted all over the Commonwealth last week.
Another quarrel between Moscow and Minsk escalated into a dairy and
gas trade war.
Armenia and Azerbaijan once again blamed each other for the lack of
resolve to settle the matter of Nagorno-Karabakh and proceeded to
fling militant rhetoric at their neighbors. Baku said it was ready
for a military solution to the territorial dispute. Yerevan reiterated
by promising to give it hell if it came to that.
The Georgian media featured numerous pieces on the Russian attack
allegedly being prepared. All these pieces were focused on the Russian
military exercise in the Caucasus. Parallels with the events a year
ago were drawn by Georgian newspapers and TV channels and their
Western analogs. Even the respectable The Times reported another
Russian-Georgian war inevitable.
Tension in Central Asia, a region not known for precipitation, mounted
gradually but mount it did. Everything began with mysterious explosions
in Andijan and Khanabad. The Uzbek authorities ran an investigation,
condemned the explosions as terrorist acts, and set out to reinforce
the state border with Kyrgyzstan claiming that terrorists must have
come from this country.
Bishkek was offended and indignant. At first, Kyrgyzstan made a
statement to the effect that there were not, nor had there ever been
any religious extremists on its territory. Later that week, however,
it began moving the best trained units of the regular army south. No
wonder. A bona fide battle took place in Jalalabad. Some servicemen
of the regular army and five Islamic radicals perished.
Tajikistan’s turn came after that. Forty Salaphites (followers
of a radical school of Islam) with their religious leader were
arrested there. According to what information is available, arrests
in Tajikistan continue. Veterans of the civil war (1992-1997) rally
the youth in hamlets high in the mountains. Last week-end, official
Dushanbe celebrated another anniversary of the signing of the national
peace and consent treaty. The celebration notwithstanding, Tajikistan
and the region in general appear to be in trouble.