THE UNITED STATES IS ENTRENCHING ITSELF IN THE STRATEGIC CASPIAN REGION
Southern Urals and Siberia will find themselves under American control
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
April 15, 2005, pp. 1, 5
WPS: Defense & Security
By Anatoly Gordiyenko, Sokhbet Mamedov, Vladimir Ivanov, Vladimir Mukhin
Russian military analysts suspect that Washington is aiming for a
trilateral alliance in the Caspian Sea region, comprising the United
States, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. The White House hopes to involve
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and probably Turkey at some later date.
A new area of Russian-American confrontation is taking shape in
the Caspian region. Azerbaijan appears to be at its center. Some
significant events are taking place in Baku. Three ships from the
Russian Caspian Flotilla (two of them missile boats Tatarstan and
Stupinets) will visit Baku later today. Counter-Admiral Vladimir
Lomakin, Military Attache of the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan, says
that the visit is timed for the 60th anniversary of victory in World
War II, and is supposed to “facilitate friendly relations between our
countries and make the Caspian a sea of friendship and trust.” That
the visit will also serve the purpose of demonstrating the might of
the Russian Navy is tactfully omitted.
In the meantime, the purpose of the visit as proclaimed by Lomakin
is viewed in Azerbaijan with some scepticism. This demonstration of
“friendly relations” is taking place three days after US Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s unexpected visit to Baku. This was
Rumsfeld’s third visit to Azerbaijan in the last three years. As
the official explanation puts it, Rumsfeld and the leaders of
Azerbaijan discussed “matters of bilateral cooperation within
the counter-terrorism coalition and assistance for Azerbaijan’s
integration into NATO.” Arriving in Baku on the evening of April 12,
however, Rumsfeld missed President Ilham Aliyev by a few hours; the
president has just left for Pakistan. So Rumsfeld met with Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev and other senior state officials at the airport.
It should be noted that both Washington and Baku have been very
quiet about Rumsfeld’s blitz-visit. Only on the morning of April
13, when Rumsfeld had already departed, did the Azerbaijani Defense
Ministry released a brief statement to the effect that “development
of Azerbaijani-American military cooperation” had been discussed. US
Ambassador to Azerbaijan Rino Harnisch said that the two sides
had discussed “American aid to Azerbaijan in the implementation of
Azerbaijan-NATO individual partnership” and that a team of American
officers had already come to Azerbaijan. He did not specify their
purpose.
Desperate for details, Azerbaijan’s newspapers focused their attention
on the recent statement of SACEUR General James Jones. The missing
details were all there. According to Jones, the United States intends
to establish special task forces and military bases in Azerbaijan –
to secure all of the Caspian region.
Harnisch is rumored to be the senior proponent of establishing American
special task forces in Azerbaijan: also known as the Caspian Watch
and military bases.
The Caspian Watch is essentially the advanced guard of the US European
Command, with headquarters in Stuttgart, whose zone of responsibility
includes the Caspian region. The Wall Street Journal maintains that the
Caspian Watch command center, equipped with sophisticated radar, will
be located in Baku. The newspaper claims that the US Administration
intends to spend approximately $100 million on the Caspian Watch in
the next 10 years.
It certainly seems that official Baku has already made up its mind on
the matter of the Pentagon’s Caspian Watch. A source in the Azerbaijani
Defense Ministry claims that the cite of the future headquarters is
already known. Headquarters will be located on the territory of a
military unit in the outskirts. The same source says that the team
of American officers in Baku has already set up a training center
for local personnel to be involved in the Caspian Watch program.
Russian military analysts suspect that Washington is aiming for a
trilateral alliance in the region, comprising the United States,
Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. The White House hopes to involve
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and probably Turkey at some later date.
The Caspian Watch will include a system of air and sea situation
monitoring and rapid response and border control forces. The structure
will resemble the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council set up in 1997
to facilitate cooperation and interaction between NATO countries.
Judging by official explanations, the Caspian Watch is being
established to fight the nuclear aspirations of rogue regimes. Among
other things, an attempt is under way to surround Iran with a ring
of military bases – to keep an eye on this Islamic state, potentially
the most dangerous from the point of view of nuclear security.
Moscow is suspicious of all these plans, and not only because it is
cooperating with Iran. The Caspian region has always been a Russian
influence zone. This American “invasion” jeopardizes Russia’s
defense interests, because it opens up a strategic route to the
industrially-developed Urals area at the center of Russia.
Meanwhile, the security structures in the Southern federal district
have held counter-terrorism command exercises. The exercise began on
April 12, and is still under way. Units of the 58th Army, a separate
motorized infantry brigade, and the 7th Airborne Division are involved
– not to mention some vessels from the Caspian Flotilla.
In other words, a covert Russian-American struggle for influence is
under way in this region. It also seems that the Americans will stop
at nothing to boost their influence.
Needless to say, the Americans’ advance into the Caspian region
indicates another failure for Russian foreign policy. Moscow is
calling for demilitarization of the region, but at the same time it
is undertaking to consolidate Caspian navies in its own interests.
But the interests of various Caspian countries are far from
homogenous. Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan want stronger
navies. Russia cannot help them with that, but the United States can
and does. Kazakhstan is about to receive a gift from the Americans:
a ship of 1,000 tons. American money is paying to rebuild the coastal
military infrastructure of Kazakhstan. Washington is extending the
same offer to Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan in return for oil. As
for Moscow, it is trying to sit on the fence. On the one hand, it
promised Kazakhstan assistance in establishint a navy (two ships from
the Russian Caspian Flotilla will be turned over to Kazakhstan before
the year is out). On the other hand, Russia insists on demilitarizing
the region. Yet militarization of the region is under way, with help
from America. A wedge is being driven into relations between Russia
and its neighbors in the Caspian region.
“This is another element in the American strategy of global dominance,”
says Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, former commander of the Main
Directorate of International Cooperation at the Defense Ministry.
“Washington is still building a monopolar world, with the United
States itself at the top and all the rest down below. Control over
the Caucasus-Caspian and Central Asian regions is being established
in accordance with the decisions of the NATO Istanbul summit last
summer, where the Caucasus and the Caspian region were proclaimed a
strategic region. The decision was made at the highest possible level.
Unfortunately for Russian diplomacy, the Defense Ministry didn’t even
bother to ask NATO at the time what this is supposed to mean.”
Translated by A. Ignatkin