Central Asia: Russia's place in the region
The region of Central Asia is a zone of historical clash of interests of world powers. It was in this direction, many centuries ago, Alexander the Great organized his campaign; it was here that the bloody battles unfolded related to the conquests of Tamerlane. Central Asia is the center of the world. The one who controls this region is able to largely determine the fate of the continent and even of all mankind.
Who is fighting for presence in the region now, when the USSR is a long time ago, and the existing forms of economic and military-political integration of the countries of Central Asia with their neighbors are based on the so-called "multipolar" principle, declared, for example, by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, whose soldiers accept participation not only in the exercises of the CSTO countries, but also of the NATO countries, taking on their territory their airbases (Manas) and reforming the armed forces according to the patterns of their Anglo-Saxon "partners"?
We will not say anything new, stating a very strange policy of the leadership of the Central Asian states in terms of compliance with their allied obligations, which, although not openly declared, definitely have a place to be, as soon as we have a military-political bloc called the CSTO. At the same time, the leadership of Russia pretends that it does not notice anything, continuing to repeat about the "century-old friendship of our peoples", about the joint victory in the Great Patriotic War. What is it: the subtle policy of our strategists or the banal weakness of the Russian state, the recognition of their own insolvency, the final refusal of Russia from the imperial policy?
To say that Russia over the past 20 years has been very well squeezed in the region is to say nothing. If we do not talk about air bases, military exercises and other forms of military-political pressure exerted on the region by NATO and the United States, and banally analyze the situation with the Russian language in Central Asia, a lot will immediately become clear. Since the collapse of the USSR, the Russian language has lost the status of the state language in most countries of the region. The exception is Kyrgyzstan, where Russian is the second state language, although this does not fundamentally change the situation. In Kyrgyzstan, as well as in Kazakhstan, the general renaming of streets, villages, regions and regional centers continues, which in the vast majority of cases is absurd in nature, without any historical the basics. The teaching of the Russian language in all countries of the region has been reduced to the minimum permissible limits or has been completely canceled, and therefore, by now, there are practically no people under the age of 30 in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan who can write, read and speak correctly Russian. Russians can easily be convinced of this by the example of migrant workers from Central Asia working in the country. Meanwhile, along with the Russian language, the Russian mentality and culture are leaving the region, and with them the political influence of Russia disappears without a trace, giving way to pan-Turkism, nationalism and radical Islamism, which is successfully taking root in an empty place. The Russians remaining in Central Asia, despite statements by individual Russian politicians that “everyone has long left,” continue to leave. Migration sentiments are especially strong in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, which seriously threatens demographic stability and catastrophically undermines Russia's strategic influence in these countries. As for the remaining countries of the region, there are almost no Russians left there, which is an additional factor in strengthening the positions of the USA, China and Islamists, perhaps more significant than any airbase. In addition to the traditional players that have been present in the region for a long time, recently, new powers have also become active in the Central Asian direction: Turkey, which, however, has been promoting the ideas of pan-Turkism here since the collapse of the Union, India, Pakistan and Iran.
With all this, it is not a secret to anyone that Central Asia is one of the most explosive regions of the planet, capable of catching the Afghan virus or the Arab spring virus. And alarm bells and even calls have already been. Recall the Tajik turmoil of the nineties, two Kyrgyz revolutions, fighting in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in the early 2000's, the recent Kyrgyz massacre. If we analyze the situation from the point of view of overseas strategists, the region of Central Asia is the best suited for carrying out an attack on Russia's strategic interests - the local instability is quite comparable with the Middle East.
How can we avoid complicating the situation in the region? Let us quote the words of the famous writer and publicist Nikolai Starikov: “The only way to restore stability in Central Asia is to restore a single country ... Integration is, or reunion, whatever you want, so call it. Russia still in the 19 century brought peace, order, and prosperity to Central Asia. In addition to her to do it just no one. The West has always more "carried away", and not brought. He is interested in the bowels, not people. The Russian civilization is arranged differently ... ”To everything that they now claim, and that they had and have, the peoples of Central Asia, they, one way or another, are obliged to Russia, to the Russian presence. Of course, this presence was multiplied by the hospitable centuries-old culture of the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Turkmen, as a result we had a great country. And what do we have now, proudly speaking about our independence?
The consolidation of the countries of the region around Moscow is the key to its stable development, which opens up tremendous opportunities for the peoples of Central Asia, who are even hard to imagine. And the fact that no matter what is being done by the current leaders of our countries, first of all, Putin and Nazarbayev, the Customs Union, the CES, the SCO, the CSTO are steps in the right direction, towards the revival of the Empire, no matter how pathetic it may sound. We simply have no other way.
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