When I discovered how Putin abandoned fellow CSTO ally Armenia despite constant Azerbaijani attack, I cannot help but question Indian people about Russia's honesty. Many Indians claim about Russia's alliance with India since 1971, but this is nothing compared to Armenia's 200 years old alliance with Russia. This means Armenia has even more credibility than India to talk about "bond" with Russia. And Putin still threw Armenia under the bus, would Putin even care about India?
You just have to ask: does Putin think that China or India is an easier partner for me? I think the answer is obvious. With this war, imo. he showcased that perfectly, he doesn’t care if China becomes a dominant player in Russia, as long as it keeps him in power. His actions speak louder than his words. He is selling India weapons but the US-Americans also sell many weapons - and yet, this kind of bloody business is not motivated by loyalty. Of course, India is much more important than Armenia globally. But Armenia is symbolic for the exact same reason you just mentioned. If India is in trouble - why would Putin fight? For democracy? Sure, if I am being honest, at least regarding Pakistan there is currently probably a chance at some degree of cooperation but China and Pakistan are also cuddling up so that’s a fleeting moment. Russia is a dictatorship trying to expand its reach and the war in Ukraine may also symbolic to India who is also in territorial disputes with its neighbours, with China being perhaps the forefront of highly authoritarian rule on the entire planet.
I do not think India should be to dependent on powers outside their region and seek to strenghten regional ties especially not on nations that betray their own allies
@Oz A additionally, i understand that russia did help armenia against azerbaijan, despite technically being obligated to oversee armenian retreat in accordance with previously signed treaties the russians themselves helped negotiating. The russian soldiers reinforced armenian positions and refused to enforce the withdrawal of armenians - which is likely what lead to the multiple flare ups during the conflict.
"They are now exclusively relient for defence on the same country that they are worried might invade them" (2:57) This is the reason the Warsaw Pact collapsed.
Also it's interesting to note that Armenia has significantly inceased it's cooperation with the EU. There will be an EU peace keeping force at the Armenia Azerbaijan border soon. And it looks like the government is looking more towards the west just like neighboring Georgia with more EU and maybe even Nato partnership. which is not to unlikly since there already several treaties with Georgia.
EU will side with Azerbaijan over Arminia due to economics, even tho politically and culturally Arminia is much closer to us. We need cheep oil and gas, Azerbaijan can supply that, Arminia can only turn to Russia.
it's crazy to see EU's influence beginning to drip over central asia. We europeans need to make sure our institutions remain democratic & humanitarian and they don't get a power trip
@@joshbentley2307 it seems hypocritical for the EU's talk of protecting Ukrainian sovereignty but they throw Armenia under the bus because of the economic and gas situation caused by the first thing
When Deng Xiaoping waged war against Vietnam in 1979, Deng was confident that Russia could not help Vietnam, and he proved it. Yet many Vietnamese users (I am half Vietnamese) still think Russia as a big brother. Now Russia’s betrayal of Armenia must have shocked them a lot, largely because Armenia has relations with Russia since 1820s, contrast to North Vietnam only built tie with Moscow in 1950s. Russia cared nothing about Vietnam is one thing, but Armenia is a whole different story.
"must have shocked them a lot" Hard to say. In eastern Europe already before the invasion Russians were not exactly deemed trustworthy, if anything the opposite of that.
Thực sự thì năm 1979 lx nó ko đem quân vào cứu nhưng cũng giúp đỡ mình. Chứ ko tự nhiên gì TQ nó rút khi mình phải căng trên hai mặt trận Cam và biên giới phía bắc
I tried explaining this to pro-Russian Africans who were anti-West and pro-Russia because Russia never colonized them. 1. Russia did the same things as every other invading empire, but to us in Eastern Europe. 2. Russia tried to colonize Africa, but quickly failed, so it wasn't for a lack of trying. 3. Russia failed because it didn't have easy access to Africa, but if it did... the things they would have done. Just look at the Circassian genocide (their MO is there, just like you hear they do in Ukraine), in case anyone thinks they're some friendly big brother. Zelensky evoked a deep truth about Russia when he said he fears Russian friendship. My country being Eastern Orthodox had them interfere on religious grounds as well, calling themselves "protectors of Orthodoxy". They come with a smile, rob you and then act offended if you call them thieves. Being used as a pawn for their games is not friendship and sure, your interests might coincide for a while, but they won't hesitate to screw you over of they want something from you. We even have a warning about Russia in our national anthem, written in 1848.
@@johnnylah5058 Câu hỏi là Nga giúp cái gì? Mỗi mấy khẩu súng? Nga có hiệp ước tương trợ quân sự với VN từ năm 1977-78 nhưng Nga có thèm cứu đâu. Con vụ Gạc Ma năm 1988, Nga có quân ở Cam Ranh nhưng có cứu đâu. Nhưng chuyện xảy ra với Armenia có lẽ mới thật sự đau đớn cho lũ cuồng Nga - bởi bây h Nga chứng tỏ Nga là nước bất tài, vong ân bội nghĩa. Nếu TQ xâm lược VN (Tập Cận Bình chẳng quan tâm tới ĐCSVN đâu, ông ta cười nhưng ông ta xem VN hạ đẳng), thì Nga cũng sẽ coi Hà Nội là một phần của TQ.
@@octavianpopescu4776 The Africans will never understand until China and Russia exploit them like slaves. In fact, Africans also despise Asians, leave alone Europeans. I live in Czechia, I have seen Africans cheering Russia and waging the Russian flag, I cannot help but feel pathetic for them.
as a Georgian, Russia is 30 minute away from our capital, Mikhael Saakashvili offered putin a deal, return our territories and we will say no to Nato and EU, yet Putin still invaded us in 2008. our position on that is hard to be anything more than neutral. (some get confused of course we want to join NATO or EU but as an official statement we cannot push this dream as hard as we can)
This is a lie. We are not seeking neutrality status. We are officially attempting to join Nato and EU. Integration in those organizations is even written in our constitution. Georgia remembers history. 1920 Russia offered us an agreement, we would declare ourselves neutral and they would guarantee our independence and neutrality. We agreed, signed the agreement and declared the status. February 2021 Russia invaded and occupied Georgia for 70 years.
@@mamulaavto i know what i was trying to say is that we cannot push as hard as we can because of threat from Russia. (ვიცი უბრალოდ ყველაფერს ვერ გავაკეთებთ რაც შეგვიძლია, მაგალითად, საქართველო დღეს არ შეუძლია, სრული მილიტარიზაცია ჩვენს შესაძლებლობების ფარგლებში იმიტო რო, რუსეთი მერე იტყვის "ნახე საქართველო აბხაზების გენოციდს აპირებს", ამიტომ თამამად ვერაფერს ჯერ საქართველოს ხელისუფლება ვერ გააკეთებს)
As a Dutchman, I really hope you, alongside other countries like Ukraine, Moldova, North Macedonia etc. will be able to join the EU very soon and I hope that pro EU sentiment will increasingly grow larger again throughout the continent, because now more than ever we need to integrate and cooperate more with each other rather than go in isolation.
At the Bucharest summit in April, 2008, it was stated by NATO that Ukraine and Georgia will be members of NATO. Russia handled largely in response to that: an anti-Russian military organization next to their borders. That doesn’t justify anything, ofcourse, but it’s not different from what the US did when potential Soviet allies came even remotely close to their borders (See: Guatemalan Civil War and Guatemalan Genocide, US support for contras in Nicaragua and US’ conviction by the ICJ, and the civil war in El Salvador. 200.000+- deaths, directly or indirectly caused by the US). I support the populations that suffer from this geopolitical game. But I just want to make clear that countries like the US should be the last to judge.
Russia has two superpower aspects still going: Permanent seat on the UN Security Council (including Veto), and lots of nukes. imagine those two being gone.... yeah, Russia would be a third or fourth rate power at best. Slightly above Iran, maybe?
@@GustavSvard Wasn't Iran able to actually fight a war with Iraq without major logistical issues, unlike Moscow? I'd say Russia would be below even Tehran.
i hope its because we learned the lesson teached to URSS and US , if you try to bring peace with force , you will be label as invader or aggressor . if they want change , they will have to start it themself .
because armeniea occuppied the azerbaijan for 28 year and killed many innocent civillian. EU couldnt help armenia because world saw what armenia did :)
@@tttt-uw9zw while true , i'm not going to considerate armenia as a whole responsible for the act of leaders and soldiers . but no, i would not supoort a military intervention as " help for armeni" . bringing more guns will only bring more death ; and theyr population will start to blame the "west" as the ones that brought death , forgetting theyr brought it themself in the first place.
@@atticman4275 you didn't heard the reason of the invasion of ukraine didn't you ? EU had no problem keeping buying from russia , russia didn't like the birth of competition in ukraine and started a pointless war . unluckly , most of the world still refuse the core idea of commerce .
One factor you entirely fail to mention is that Azerbaijan is a very close ally or Turkey. Russia attacking Azeris would anger Turkey and put Russian interests at risks. Under these terms, Armenia becomes expendable.
It would not be just an anger Turkey though. Both Azerbaijan and Turkey do have a formal alliance ,so if one member gets attack the other joins. Pretty sure Russia would not do such a thing giving circumstances. Same goes for the Iran
@@revnaza You have a dictator fighting an occupying force in breach of UN recognised borders though. This is like watching Iran and Iraq kill each other
Yea how dare Azerbaijan attacking armenian positions in Armenia after Armenia invaded Azerbaijan for 30 years. Don't they know that only armenians has right to attack other countries?
If Russia helped Armenia, it would fuck up relationship between Turkey and Russia. Turkey is thinking about leaving NATO. Turkey is more important country than Armenia is to Russia.
"They are now exclusively relient for defence on the same country that they are worried might invade them" (2:57) This is the reason the Warsaw Pact collapsed.
@@samuela-aegisdottir and Finland and Poland were invaded before that. it's embarrassing for Russia to pretend they are trustworthy 'allies' or anti imperialist. The Russian empire never died, they just got rid of their Czar.
@@greygust3936 point was that unless you are very young (like only 20-25) you should've atleast heared it, since it was around that time USSR collapsed and CSTO was formed and talked about To answer your question; there are probably a lot of people who have never heard about CSTO since it never was a big deal and only talked about back when it was formed and recently when it's member got attacked and 2 more members started fighting I myself know about it only because i've watched a video where it was compared with NATO
I feel even china wouldn't write a long chequebook for Russia , china only understands economy , Russia unfortunately doesn't has any economy left , if EU somehow carries over this winter then i think it's probably over for Russia
@@kermitthethinker1465 And by what right are other countries entitled to other countries natural resource, too much colonizer mentality? You want their OIL you play by their OIL rules just like how countries that want to access EU market complies with EU rules
What do you even mean by "Will CSTO collapse?" with the answer "No on the short term, but possible on the medium and long-term."?? Do you expect the signed papers to suddenly burst in flames with no record of it? Because then I would say it's unlikely even on the long term. Otherwise, CSTO has collapsed when Russia did nothing when Armenia explicitly asked for support against an attack, which could even be considered unprovoked, on its own territory. CSTO's collapse is a matter of the past, not the future. It's really irrelevant whether 100 years from now whoever will rule Kazakhstan and Belarus will kindly laugh at the fact that TECHNICALLY they are in an alliance that they never bothered to explicitly give up on. TECHNICALLY, Transnistria is still USSR. Does this mean that USSR hasn't collapsed yet?
Suppose there must be a number of member states of The Russian Federation that are not particularly happy about Putin's war...So, when will we see the federation break up?
None of them have any political independence. It's a federation in name only, most of the "republics" and Oblasts have the same amount of independence as counties in the UK. Almost all of the taxes flow straight to Moscow to be redistributed to the regions which they rarely are. The only entity within the Russian federation that has any degree of independence is Chechnya, and even that is essentially the same kind of arrangement as old timey client kings of empires where Chechnya is the personal property of Ramzan Kadyrov and Kadyrov swears loyalty to -the emperor- Putin. It's not impossible that the federation could dissolve, but it couldn't do it on it's own. It would require foreign sponserships. Perhaps they should reach out to Raid: Shadow legends or Raycon?
@@moritamikamikara3879 It's even more impossible for them to rebel now that the male population of the eastern Oblasts and republics is being sent as cannon fodder in Ukraine, There's rumours already of small villages in siberia where all it's men were wiped out in the war and there's many more where the entire village was mobilized.
Russia is "federation" in name only. Its one of the most centralized states on the planet. in fact like 70 percent of whole federation economy is denominated in Moscow and Petersburg... everyone else is left scraps with the costs of resource plundering offloaded to locals.
Armenia's geopolitical location couldn't be any worst. In honesty, its best bet is really Iran due to just pure locational reasons. But if you ask me for long-term defense cooperation it has to be US and namely joining NATO. Turkey and Israel are low-key, not lowkey literary supplying Azerbaijan with arms. the Eu basically depends on Azerbaijan for natural gas now that Russia is sanctioned due to the Ukraine war. China is way too far to be efficient here and Russia is fighting a losing war with Ukraine. The US is Armenia is only hope man.
I kinda feel Putin’s vision after a successful annexation of Ukraine would’ve been to annex Moldova and Georgia before attempting to fully integrate the rest of the CSTO into the Union State alongside existing members Russia and Belarus. It may not be the former Soviet or even Russian Empire borders but it’d be massive for the country and for Putin’s own legacy.
Thank you for covering Tajik assault on Kyrgyz borders. This event went completely overlooked by western and even russian media and was never discussed beyond "yet another border dispute case". I wouldn't say russia kept peace in the region exactly, this was the second assault in two years and this time bolder and bigger in scale. There were speculations that Tajikistan received blessing from russia to go through with this, because shortly after their president was given a medal from Putin himself and the assault happened shortly after Kyrgyzstan signed a trade deal with China that would allow to ship Chinese goods to Europe bypassing russia completely. Anyway, there are now calls for quitting CSTO in Kyrgyzstan as well, we missed the latest training as a result, but I doubt we would leave it soon, since we're somewhat vulnerable without any prominent allies.
Thanks for info. Make a video topic suggestion. The link is in the description of the video. I have made the suggestion as well, but I know litterary nothing aboute the dispute, this is the first time I hear about it. More people suggesting it might mean more probability of a video about it.
Now, this will be interesting, because Armenia, as mentioned by various comments there, have an even stronger relationship with Russia, a relationship that cannot be underestimated because of Armenia's status as the second oldest ally of Russia (after Serbia). We can see some pattern. For India, this country has been more successful at diversifying market, but it is still dependant on Russian weapons - the betrayal of Armenia by Russia directly hits Indian population's political morale as Russia has become unreliable. For Vietnam, this country is even more reliant on Russia but Vietnam is more autocratic and very hard to reform without toppling the Communist Party - the betrayal of Armenia by Russia will severely impact Hanoi's ability due to China is now far more powerful than Russia. At the same time, VCP is fractured by infighting, when Trong is the only final leader in Vietnam who are truly pro-Chinese (Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Pham Binh Minh are hardly friendly even though they share authoritarian mindset). And China will never arm Vietnam because China has territorial issues. For Saudi Arabia, Russia's backstabbing of Armenia blew up the myth of Russia as Riyadh's new friend - now MBS is scrambling with Iran (one of Russia's main allies) openly threatens Saudi Arabia and is now seeking for American support. Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans, whose governments are Russia-friendly, will view Russia with even deeper suspicion and will likely to invite more Latin Americans to openly oppose Russia. The only people who are likely to stay pro-Russian are the Black Africans, largely because Black Africans care nothing about the outside world.
Our (India's) reliance on Russia is _entirely_ just a hardware legacy: way before the invasion, we backed out of the PAK FA fighter. At the time I really didn't understand why, and thought it was a poor decision, but it's turning out to have been quite a prescient decision. The Su-57 that it was supposed to be based on severely underperformed, and even _before_ Russia abandoned Armenia (when Russia had a more or less spotless record of support), the sense was "the odds are good but the goods are odd". After the abandonment, the odds aren't even good, but the goods are still odd.
CSTO failed to help Armenia when they requested it. What good is a defense treaty if no one shows up to help when you get invaded? Other CSTO members are actively fighting each other. CSTO is a joke.
India is another possible partner. Armenia is already negotiating for purchase of some artillery from India. While India rarely gets involved militarily they are seeking to sell military equipment.
Ukraine was never Russia ally. China and Russia are big allies. Putin showed he doesn't care whatl China does because he knows they are on same page, both like communism, both hate west, both are not democratic. And if you didn't know, they are offically allies.
@@randomdude3090 The alliance between Russia and China are just words, and they cost nothing. The only thing the two countries have in common is a common enemy, nothing more. Russia receives from China contracts for raw materials with a large discount instead of aid. China is taking over Central Asia where Russia has always ruled. Putin is too weak to win anything against China, and the Chinese know it and will ruthlessly exploit it. This "alliance" is an act of desperation on the part of Putin who is left alone and will cost Russia dearly.
@@veritaspk If Russia wants to Survive they need China. Putin's actions showed je doesn't care if Russia becomes reliant of China. Trust me: if China makes an alliance, Russia is gonna be in that alliance too. China is using Russia and Putin knows it. He can only look at Russia and central asia slowly becoming China's puppets.
@@randomdude3090 Russia doesn't need China to survive, Putin does. The war in Ukraine is not about the survival of Russia as a state, but about the survival of an authoritarian system of power. That's why Putin is getting closer to China ... he knows he will sell his country and his people ... but at least he will retain power.
@@veritaspk Yes. But Russia still needs China to be a world power. Very soon USA and China will start a war over Taiwan. Russia will pick China's side and maybe even supply them because if they lose China Putin will lose everything and won't have another world power to support him. Russia will be left alone. Which means defeat for Putin. Russia will not leave China anytime soon. And China wants to controll Russia so they won't leave Russia too.
it's crazy that Azerbaijan, which is more authoritarian, is a big ally of the EU but Armenia which is fully democratic is super close allies with authoritarian Russia and China.
Was in Armenia recently. In Artashat met the Russian Army (have a picture to prove it) on the way to Khor Virap. The buffer zone with Turkey is next to it and quite big. Like 1 km patrolled by Russians only. Disturbing trucks with written армия России ... Last year I was on the Turkish side between Ani and Doğubeyazıt area and you can easily spot Turkish military, checkpoints and military base in the proximity to the non recognized but de facto border. I guess Armenia can be patrolled by EU as it's a working democracy. France (as it has huge interests in Armenia) can intervene. Maybe a democratic alliance rather than Fascist Russia
@@justinianmakesbyzantiumgre5716 It's truer to say some of the EU are reliant. France generates most its energy from nuclear and gas from Spain. Britain isn't EU but is similar in getting gas from Southern Europe rather than Azer. So there might be a situation of France and other energy secure members supporting Armenia.
Would be really fun if Armenia joins NATO just to spite Russia. It wouldn't change the disputed status of Nagorno Karabakh but NATO will be bound to protect against any invasion of Armenia proper.
@@Alexander-sr7qm yep. True. Ordinarily, I would be happy about a Russian ally being screwed over. But I feel really sad for Armenians. They don't deserve this. And Turkey has been horrible for them
Russia mocked Europe for going cold in the winter. But Ukraine has allies that make sacrifices for them, whereas Russia has partners that take advantage of Russia. No one in India is suggesting to buy Russian crude at WTI prices to help out their friend
China is also makes advantage of Russia by slowly inserting its influence to former Soviet republics (Kyrgyzstan being the most prominent example) and African countries
This is exactly why populists are never the solution. Everything is transactional with them, there is no genuine friendship or common goals or values with these people. I'll never forget Bolsonaro the next day Trump lost acting like: "Trump? Who dat? Long live Biden!" Or Johnson in the UK mocking Trump at a meeting behind his back. Even if you go back to dictators like Hitler or Stalin, on one hand they admired each other, on the other hand they had no qualms waging war against one another. It happened that Hitler invaded first, but Stalin was himself preparing to invade. Such spineless weaklings. As someone once said: "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything".
Yes, China have been eroding Russia influence in central asia. Hard to deny their money, especially when you're landlocked (or even double landlocked lol) and depend on gas exports.
China has been largest importer of Russian fossil fuel. Japan, China & France are largest importer of Russian LNG last month. As LNG is not sanctioned. Same Uranium is not sanctioned, US is buying it. US did sanctioned fertilizer, lifted it within a week.
The buildings are often filled with hidden microphones and anything that is built is built very cheaply of the country has to pay china back for the construction debt trapping them
It's infamous because countries keep failing to pay. Some say it's China's "debt trap initiative" others say it's more like China's incompetence, that China is overextending itself. Also, my country recently stepped down from some BRI deals one of the reasons being that Chinese firms underbid others and then don't deliver.
Because it's not doing anything "good". - It's building low quality roads etc. to-and-from locations that benefit CCP's interest, and ONLY those. Need a road from the hospital/city to the country side? Well too bad, CCP only needs a road from the city to the main port. - CCP does not allow the nations to use their own construction firms or even populace etc. to build the infra, which means, the loan money is not going into the system to revitalize the economy. - The loans are given, despite the countries inability to ever pay them back, which the CCP seems to count on, which they can then use to leverage the countries to give up their major ports for CCP's military usage, putting them into very precarious position regarding internal security and international relations. - CCP pollutes like crazy. Whatever they are building, you can be assured that all the waste is left where it is and handled with the utmost irresponsibility. - Owing your alliegence through depts to a group that not only is committing genocide, organ harvesting, forced abortions (which might soon turn into forced impregnation), constantly ignoring & breaking the international law, honors no deals it makes and is the picture perfect description of a dystopian surveillance state, MIGHT not be the best idea either.
Kazakhstan and Armenia are in an interesting position because they could realistically seek closer ties to Europe and NATO. Kazakhstan especially since it has a substantial amount of territory in Europe so it could even join the EU. Armenia might have a tougher time though since NATO seems to currently favor Azerbaijan since it's an ally of NATO member Turkey.
Basically CSTO is as much voluntarily joined as the infamous Warsaw Pact was. And that is why it disintegrated as soon there was no bully (USSR) who forced other parties into it and whoever only could rushed to join NATO as soon as possible. The same goes for CSTO; as soon as Russia looses the war with Ukraine the CSTO ceases to exist. Hopefully the sooner the better
It's collapsing for a reason. Azerbaijan has invaded Armenia twice, and Russia's done nothing. What's the point in an alliance if the "ally" won't even come to your aid?
I am not a historian. All I have is an A level History 1974. All this sounds so like the mid nineteenth century squabbling between states and dynasties that I studied. Serious growing up is needed.
Like how the logo of CSTO basically copies NATO's one being at the same overloaded with small details making it practically impossible to use even as a flag, not to mention smaller forms of use.
At this point is there even really a difference between the modern term "regional superpowers" (referring to countries like the US, China, I've even heard it thrown around the EU and Russia a couple times) versus the old term "great power" (with the likes of Britain, France, and Germany) I thought there were supposed to be just 1 maybe 2 superpowers but at this point there's more Superpowers than there were Great Powers by many definitions
Realistically it's in Armenia's best interest to stay within CSTO, but also adding a firmer Iranian military presence along with (proverbially) Chinese "guarantees". With hostile Turks on both sides wanting to vanquish them, there's really no other option, neither France nor the US will get themselves too tangled with the Caucasus conflicts.
@@inteallsviktigt If NATO thinks it can stretch its reach into some of these central Asian nations. And how it feels about taking in some of them without being democracies. Meanwhile, China often makes a show of being a reasonably negotiable partner and alternative with a policy that you do what you want with your local minorities or democratic expectations.
@@inteallsviktigt Turkey, a NATO member, would never allow that. Just look how they didn`t even want to let Sweden or Finland join based on possibly made up claims of Kurdish cooperation.
The problem with the prices is not the prices themselves but the sending cost. I don't remember right now but to my country, Spain, it was a lot. Like, your offer equals to a very, very small amount of the total I have to pay. It's the same problem I find getting the "free stuff" from Nintendo, anything that is supposed to be free ends up costing me 10 bucks. Which is a lot for cheap stuff like cards or similar.
Meanwhile NATO is stronger than it has ever been and will only become stronger with new additions. Its crazy how quickly one really big mistake can change things. Especially when you double and triple down on the mistake...
*I really feel it would be GREAT for 🇦🇲Armenia (& 🇦🇿Azerbaijan) if they can apply for 🇪🇺EU (& possibly NATO) membership as they’re Western oriented, will really be focused into development & mutual cooperation 🤝 rather than fighting between themselves - just like their neighbour 🇬🇪Georgia has been applying recently.* As an example, 🇬🇷Greece has had tensions with its neighbours like 🇦🇱Albania, 🇲🇰North Macedonia & 🇹🇷Turkïye - but because they’re in the EU/ NATO, they have never become full conflicts in recent history. (Unlike 🇷🇺Russia-🇧🇾Belarus-🇺🇦Ukraine-🇲🇩Moldova-🇬🇪Georgia which are currently members of neither and have been in conflict in recent times)
This would only work if both countries join together otherwise one would leverage its position over the other. But i do agree with you if turkey was a part of eu or if greece wasn't they'd be equal and the issues would be solved faster.
But i do also think that azerbaijan and armenia's issues are a lot more important than turkey and greece's i can see our issues be solved without killing people or giving land away but a border dispute is harder to solve but it would incentivize them to end the border dispute nontheless.
This is definite a stress test for the CSTO. Russia has a lot of control over the organization, so they are key to the organization's success. It all. depends on how hands on Russia is, with it's current organizations. The war in Ukraine showed how limited cooperation in the CSTO is without Russia's help. So, maybe the organization could survive if they reform it and decentralize the power, but to do that the territorial disputes between neighbors has to be resolved which is an issue in of itself.
Armenia should ally more with the west. Since azerbaiyan is allied to turkey and armenia to russia, they can be constantly at war because the alliances dont care, but NATO would never let turkey (another member) aid azerbaiyan against armenia. Turkey probably doesn't want armenia in nato though After learning a bit more about the whole thing, one thing is clear. The abundance of oil and gas has turned azerbaijan in yet another authoritharian petrol state and whose autocrat (president since 2003 XD) thinks he can start killing left and right to further his goals, while Armenia is much more democratic and free, most likely for having less resources. Armenia doesn't have the means to defend itself but azerbaiyan does, we should defend Armenia for now and make them redraw their borders so Armenia retains their armenian populated areas and grant a UN defended corridor for the Azerbaiyan exclave. Then, integrate Armenia into the alliance. Azerbaiyan should be on their own until they depose their regime
Armenia literally claiming Estern Turkey is Western Armenia. They are claiming land of a NATO ally. So they cannot be in NATO or NATO members cannot aid their military. You cannot arm rival counties of your allies.
I'm sure an agreement could be reached to everyone's satisfaction. I feel sorry about what's happening to Armenia and we should try to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict there.
the map @ 7:36 is very confusing, the range is a problem 0-1-5-10-25-100. the statistician in me has a problem with that key, makes tiny things look big.
Better not... those exclaves contain inland water source which I doubt both side would cede lands. It makes sense Kazakhstan to ensure stability there since they don't have to traverse mountains and give help in time.
In an ideal world, NATO would boot out Turkey, condemn them for the genocide (and for generally being a corrupt dictatorship) and embrace Armenia. Key word here is 'ideal' - I'm well aware of Turkey's strategic importance to NATO.
Yeah and support the russian state of armenia that supports russia when it invades georgis because georgia wants to join nato? I swear man you guys are smoking pots. Armenia doesn't even opens its archives for the genocide claims. Only reason a lot of countries do recognize it is because there are tons of rich armenian people in the west lobbying politicians. They wouldn't recognize if they didn't funding for their programs or else they wouldn't recognize it wheter it's real or not they're not angels. A french parliament member asked one another to go back to africa who the hell are they to preach about racism. France even supported the huti governmenr in rwanda. France supports saudi arabia on yemen saudi's are making a famine and bombing civilians. Saudis bombed funerals and hospitals. Who the hell are they to kick out another country from nato because of a disproved genocide that happened 100 years ago when they're promoting mass murder today.
Honestly, putting CSTO peacekeepers in occupied parts of Ukraine is probably a good way to put more strain on the alliance, just like the US dragging everyone into a mess in Afghanistan made several members severely reluctant to follow them into Iraq.
There's a bunch of regional cooperational organisations I'd like to know more about. The African Union, the economic union southeast asian nations have and others. Just because I haven't learned about them doesn't mean they're not there.
What is the point of the CSTO when it’s members didn’t assist Armenia when it was invaded by Azerbaijan? It’s like joining a golf club but is not allowed to use the course 🤣🤣
"They are now exclusively relient for defence on the same country that they are worried might invade them" (2:57) exactly that has happened to Czechoslovakia in 1968. It got invaded by the leader of its military alliance. Guess who it was.
Russia has a bizarre history of choosing the worst of leaders that are hellbent on needless suffering for their own people and neighbors, as well as disastrous unforced errors.
China's policy has been to keep others territory away. They get around it by defining Taiwan and bits of the sea as Chinese territory and they have a couple weird border standoffs but actually grabbing parts of Russia (or Thailand, India etc) would be pretty blatant. As they mention, they've mostly swept others into economic dependency.
@@SusCalvin : The Chinese officals have already mentioned the "chineseness" of Vladivostok. Mind you, the Primorsky Krai is also known under two other names. In the West as Outer Manchuria, in China as Outer North East. It was lost to Imperial Russia as part of the so called "Unequal Treaties". It's official policy to reverse those. ...in essence, the Chinese define this as Chinese territory. The border treaties the Chinese have with Russia are irrelevant in their eyes and only a consequence / continuation of the unequal treaties. Meaning, if Russia becomes weak enough, the Chinese will start pressing their claim.
@@bikkiikun Yeah, defining some contested area as part of China is a way to get around their policy of not intervening in others internal affairs. I want to see what happens with the chinese naval bases in Africa and their civilian companies operating there.
@@SusCalvin : The Party will either use the debt traps they set up or the fear of the corrupt rulers for their lives and riches... Or they suddenly "discover" a map from the Ming or Tang times... to justify any claim (wouldn't be the first time).
@@bikkiikun I remember when they made up some janky historical stuff to conclude that the Dalai Lama should be a chinese appointment. It's what I mean when I say they want to define external conflicts as internal matters.
Hand-delivering the 10,000th order to celebrate your first myriad will be a great honour for the customer receiving it. Very likely he / she will organise a receiving party for you!
Don't say "Azeri" when you mean "Azerbaijani." "Azeri" is an ethno-linguistic group, "Azerbaijani" is a nationality. All Azerbaijanis are Azeri, but NOT all Azeris are Azerbaijani. Most Azeris actually live in Iran.
2:00 We don't rely to heavily on the US; The US spends too much. If the US decreased its spending we'd be fine with picking up some of the slack but NATO already spends more than the rest of the world combined. Why would we ever need more than that?
I agree. Besides China, there are no countries that can rival the military might of European nations like Britain and France. Even if NATO didn't exist and the US were not willing to protect Europe it wouldn't matter really. There are no countries powerful enough to invade Europe.
Russia: we have NATO at home
NATO at home:
More like Nato on Vodka 😆😆
I love This kinda information. Escalation is inevitable. More 3ntertainment coming more popcorn to eat. Yum yum
Honestly, that's exactly my thought about this whole thing. It feels like nothing but a pathetic imitation of NATO
Meanwhile the mess of nato with teh turkish take over of cypress which you did nothing about wow such allies
When I discovered how Putin abandoned fellow CSTO ally Armenia despite constant Azerbaijani attack, I cannot help but question Indian people about Russia's honesty. Many Indians claim about Russia's alliance with India since 1971, but this is nothing compared to Armenia's 200 years old alliance with Russia. This means Armenia has even more credibility than India to talk about "bond" with Russia. And Putin still threw Armenia under the bus, would Putin even care about India?
The only way russia will ever support india is if its facing Western allies for example don't expect any help from russia against china or Pakistan
You just have to ask: does Putin think that China or India is an easier partner for me?
I think the answer is obvious. With this war, imo. he showcased that perfectly, he doesn’t care if China becomes a dominant player in Russia, as long as it keeps him in power. His actions speak louder than his words.
He is selling India weapons but the US-Americans also sell many weapons - and yet, this kind of bloody business is not motivated by loyalty.
Of course, India is much more important than Armenia globally. But Armenia is symbolic for the exact same reason you just mentioned.
If India is in trouble - why would Putin fight? For democracy?
Sure, if I am being honest, at least regarding Pakistan there is currently probably a chance at some degree of cooperation but China and Pakistan are also cuddling up so that’s a fleeting moment.
Russia is a dictatorship trying to expand its reach and the war in Ukraine may also symbolic to India who is also in territorial disputes with its neighbours, with China being perhaps the forefront of highly authoritarian rule on the entire planet.
Russia literally can't help Armenia, due to Putin's idiotic and expensive war in Ukraine.
"Oh no, Russia's word is worthless. What a complete shock," says anyone who has been living under a rock for the past 20 years.
I do not think India should be to dependent on powers outside their region and seek to strenghten regional ties especially not on nations that betray their own allies
What's the point of a defensive alliance if no one in it comes to help you when you are attacked?
It's just cope so Russia can say they have their own NATO
@Oz A Plus, Azerbaijani military uses better weapons, from Israel.
@Oz A additionally, i understand that russia did help armenia against azerbaijan, despite technically being obligated to oversee armenian retreat in accordance with previously signed treaties the russians themselves helped negotiating.
The russian soldiers reinforced armenian positions and refused to enforce the withdrawal of armenians - which is likely what lead to the multiple flare ups during the conflict.
The point is that it serves Russian interests, and if you don't join it, Russia invades you.
Worse , Russia could invade their members in the future.
With Russia as a friend, who need enemies?
"They are now exclusively relient for defence on the same country that they are worried might invade them" (2:57) This is the reason the Warsaw Pact collapsed.
those that too far from god, they dont need enemies either.
Well Russia is friend of India. Russia never betrayed us.
Also it's interesting to note that Armenia has significantly inceased it's cooperation with the EU. There will be an EU peace keeping force at the Armenia Azerbaijan border soon. And it looks like the government is looking more towards the west just like neighboring Georgia with more EU and maybe even Nato partnership. which is not to unlikly since there already several treaties with Georgia.
It’ll be interesting to see what influence Azerbaijan will be able to exercise over the EU with critical oil and gas exports
EU will side with Azerbaijan over Arminia due to economics, even tho politically and culturally Arminia is much closer to us.
We need cheep oil and gas, Azerbaijan can supply that, Arminia can only turn to Russia.
it's crazy to see EU's influence beginning to drip over central asia. We europeans need to make sure our institutions remain democratic & humanitarian and they don't get a power trip
@@joshbentley2307 it seems hypocritical for the EU's talk of protecting Ukrainian sovereignty but they throw Armenia under the bus because of the economic and gas situation caused by the first thing
Armenia never did anything slightly supporting ukrain since the start of war. You people need to stop having delusions.
This is what happens when you don't protect your allies
Putin prefers to declare them as enemies and attack them then
Russia literally can't, due to Putin's idiotic and expensive war in Ukraine.
russia never saw them as alliece but as bulletsponges and vassals
the real reason is Russia is declining, simple but true.
CSTO members are not allies but hostages of putin's fascist regime.
When Deng Xiaoping waged war against Vietnam in 1979, Deng was confident that Russia could not help Vietnam, and he proved it. Yet many Vietnamese users (I am half Vietnamese) still think Russia as a big brother. Now Russia’s betrayal of Armenia must have shocked them a lot, largely because Armenia has relations with Russia since 1820s, contrast to North Vietnam only built tie with Moscow in 1950s. Russia cared nothing about Vietnam is one thing, but Armenia is a whole different story.
"must have shocked them a lot" Hard to say. In eastern Europe already before the invasion Russians were not exactly deemed trustworthy, if anything the opposite of that.
Thực sự thì năm 1979 lx nó ko đem quân vào cứu nhưng cũng giúp đỡ mình. Chứ ko tự nhiên gì TQ nó rút khi mình phải căng trên hai mặt trận Cam và biên giới phía bắc
I tried explaining this to pro-Russian Africans who were anti-West and pro-Russia because Russia never colonized them. 1. Russia did the same things as every other invading empire, but to us in Eastern Europe. 2. Russia tried to colonize Africa, but quickly failed, so it wasn't for a lack of trying. 3. Russia failed because it didn't have easy access to Africa, but if it did... the things they would have done. Just look at the Circassian genocide (their MO is there, just like you hear they do in Ukraine), in case anyone thinks they're some friendly big brother. Zelensky evoked a deep truth about Russia when he said he fears Russian friendship. My country being Eastern Orthodox had them interfere on religious grounds as well, calling themselves "protectors of Orthodoxy". They come with a smile, rob you and then act offended if you call them thieves. Being used as a pawn for their games is not friendship and sure, your interests might coincide for a while, but they won't hesitate to screw you over of they want something from you. We even have a warning about Russia in our national anthem, written in 1848.
@@johnnylah5058 Câu hỏi là Nga giúp cái gì? Mỗi mấy khẩu súng? Nga có hiệp ước tương trợ quân sự với VN từ năm 1977-78 nhưng Nga có thèm cứu đâu. Con vụ Gạc Ma năm 1988, Nga có quân ở Cam Ranh nhưng có cứu đâu.
Nhưng chuyện xảy ra với Armenia có lẽ mới thật sự đau đớn cho lũ cuồng Nga - bởi bây h Nga chứng tỏ Nga là nước bất tài, vong ân bội nghĩa. Nếu TQ xâm lược VN (Tập Cận Bình chẳng quan tâm tới ĐCSVN đâu, ông ta cười nhưng ông ta xem VN hạ đẳng), thì Nga cũng sẽ coi Hà Nội là một phần của TQ.
@@octavianpopescu4776 The Africans will never understand until China and Russia exploit them like slaves. In fact, Africans also despise Asians, leave alone Europeans. I live in Czechia, I have seen Africans cheering Russia and waging the Russian flag, I cannot help but feel pathetic for them.
as a Georgian, Russia is 30 minute away from our capital, Mikhael Saakashvili offered putin a deal, return our territories and we will say no to Nato and EU, yet Putin still invaded us in 2008. our position on that is hard to be anything more than neutral. (some get confused of course we want to join NATO or EU but as an official statement we cannot push this dream as hard as we can)
This is a lie. We are not seeking neutrality status. We are officially attempting to join Nato and EU. Integration in those organizations is even written in our constitution.
Georgia remembers history. 1920 Russia offered us an agreement, we would declare ourselves neutral and they would guarantee our independence and neutrality. We agreed, signed the agreement and declared the status. February 2021 Russia invaded and occupied Georgia for 70 years.
@@mamulaavto i know what i was trying to say is that we cannot push as hard as we can because of threat from Russia. (ვიცი უბრალოდ ყველაფერს ვერ გავაკეთებთ რაც შეგვიძლია, მაგალითად, საქართველო დღეს არ შეუძლია, სრული მილიტარიზაცია ჩვენს შესაძლებლობების ფარგლებში იმიტო რო, რუსეთი მერე იტყვის "ნახე საქართველო აბხაზების გენოციდს აპირებს", ამიტომ თამამად ვერაფერს ჯერ საქართველოს ხელისუფლება ვერ გააკეთებს)
I am certain you will eventually join both alongside Armenia. Russia is weakening itself for the foreseeable future.
As a Dutchman, I really hope you, alongside other countries like Ukraine, Moldova, North Macedonia etc. will be able to join the EU very soon and I hope that pro EU sentiment will increasingly grow larger again throughout the continent, because now more than ever we need to integrate and cooperate more with each other rather than go in isolation.
At the Bucharest summit in April, 2008, it was stated by NATO that Ukraine and Georgia will be members of NATO. Russia handled largely in response to that: an anti-Russian military organization next to their borders.
That doesn’t justify anything, ofcourse, but it’s not different from what the US did when potential Soviet allies came even remotely close to their borders (See: Guatemalan Civil War and Guatemalan Genocide, US support for contras in Nicaragua and US’ conviction by the ICJ, and the civil war in El Salvador. 200.000+- deaths, directly or indirectly caused by the US).
I support the populations that suffer from this geopolitical game. But I just want to make clear that countries like the US should be the last to judge.
"NATO is collapsing"
*inhales*
"Russia's NATO is collapsing"
*exhales*
Everyone's collapsing. There I said it every nation and alliance is on the verge of collapse and soon we will enter a new dark age.
Calling russia a superpower is a big stretch
Russia has two superpower aspects still going: Permanent seat on the UN Security Council (including Veto), and lots of nukes.
imagine those two being gone.... yeah, Russia would be a third or fourth rate power at best. Slightly above Iran, maybe?
their only a superpower because of the fact they have a ton of nukes
@@GustavSvard Wasn't Iran able to actually fight a war with Iraq without major logistical issues, unlike Moscow? I'd say Russia would be below even Tehran.
@@GustavSvard A permanent seat at the security council nor having a lot of nukes makes one a superpower, just ask France and UK.
@@chazbertino6102 and both France and the UK more economically powerful than Russia.
EU clearly not capitalising enough in Armenia’s relationships.
i hope its because we learned the lesson teached to URSS and US , if you try to bring peace with force , you will be label as invader or aggressor . if they want change , they will have to start it themself .
because armeniea occuppied the azerbaijan for 28 year and killed many innocent civillian. EU couldnt help armenia because world saw what armenia did :)
EU is favouring Azerbaijan due to gas reasons. Since now they have to find a new supplier instead of Russia.
@@tttt-uw9zw while true , i'm not going to considerate armenia as a whole responsible for the act of leaders and soldiers .
but no, i would not supoort a military intervention as " help for armeni" . bringing more guns will only bring more death ; and theyr population will start to blame the "west" as the ones that brought death , forgetting theyr brought it themself in the first place.
@@atticman4275 you didn't heard the reason of the invasion of ukraine didn't you ?
EU had no problem keeping buying from russia , russia didn't like the birth of competition in ukraine and started a pointless war .
unluckly , most of the world still refuse the core idea of commerce .
Love waking up with positive news like this.
One factor you entirely fail to mention is that Azerbaijan is a very close ally or Turkey.
Russia attacking Azeris would anger Turkey and put Russian interests at risks.
Under these terms, Armenia becomes expendable.
It would not be just an anger Turkey though. Both Azerbaijan and Turkey do have a formal alliance ,so if one member gets attack the other joins. Pretty sure Russia would not do such a thing giving circumstances. Same goes for the Iran
@@emrenuriyev9132 Iran cares about its regional intrest. Azerbaijan and Turkey are both dictatorships.
Thank you so much for making a video on Armenia! This topic needs more coverage.
Armenia is a fake country which Azerbaijan will conquer.
@@warmfeetwinner760 It's all about being more powerful for you, Armenia needs help from getting invaded by a dictator (Aliev).
if armenia leaves csto without guaranteeing another secuirty pact it is guaranteed to lose all of Qarabağ to azerbaijan
@@revnaza You have a dictator fighting an occupying force in breach of UN recognised borders though. This is like watching Iran and Iraq kill each other
Yea how dare Azerbaijan attacking armenian positions in Armenia after Armenia invaded Azerbaijan for 30 years. Don't they know that only armenians has right to attack other countries?
Why make a pact with a country that doesn't honor its pacts?
If Russia helped Armenia, it would fuck up relationship between Turkey and Russia. Turkey is thinking about leaving NATO. Turkey is more important country than Armenia is to Russia.
It's called USA😂😂😂
Russia's excuse is it's not obligated to protect a Armenian separatist break away territory... Yeah.
It'd be kinda weird being in an alliance with a country that constantly invades its neighbors.
"They are now exclusively relient for defence on the same country that they are worried might invade them" (2:57) This is the reason the Warsaw Pact collapsed.
Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, Georgia 2008, Ukraine 2014.... We remember
@@samuela-aegisdottir and Finland and Poland were invaded before that. it's embarrassing for Russia to pretend they are trustworthy 'allies' or anti imperialist. The Russian empire never died, they just got rid of their Czar.
Like NATO being involved with the United States? The grand invader themselves?
Russia borders 11 countries. Can't be friends with all of them.
Has anyone else never heard of the CSTO?
It's been around since the collapse of USSR
@@abobanger9054 that wasn't the question
@@greygust3936 point was that unless you are very young (like only 20-25) you should've atleast heared it, since it was around that time USSR collapsed and CSTO was formed and talked about
To answer your question; there are probably a lot of people who have never heard about CSTO since it never was a big deal and only talked about back when it was formed and recently when it's member got attacked and 2 more members started fighting
I myself know about it only because i've watched a video where it was compared with NATO
I have heard about that in other TLDR videos. Not before that.
Wonder what tankies think of the CSTO now
Probably don't want to know, you'll get exposed to dangerous amounts of second-hand copium
@@bb-6359 True
Wouldn't they be happy China's influence in that region will strengthen?
they don't think, that's why they are tankies in the first place
Who are the tankies
I feel even china wouldn't write a long chequebook for Russia , china only understands economy , Russia unfortunately doesn't has any economy left , if EU somehow carries over this winter then i think it's probably over for Russia
@@olskid9546 I agree,but OPEC reduced production to increase prices,OPEC it's in my opinion a Cartel that should be broken to avoid shit like this.
@@kermitthethinker1465 And by what right are other countries entitled to other countries natural resource, too much colonizer mentality? You want their OIL you play by their OIL rules just like how countries that want to access EU market complies with EU rules
If China only cared about economy, it wouldn't be risking their entire prosperity for Taiwan.
@@emperorjonz9590 no, because no one likes cartels.
@@emperorjonz9590 no, they're strong arming non-OPEC oil providers (like the companies that work in the North sea) into raising their prices too.
What do you even mean by "Will CSTO collapse?" with the answer "No on the short term, but possible on the medium and long-term."??
Do you expect the signed papers to suddenly burst in flames with no record of it? Because then I would say it's unlikely even on the long term.
Otherwise, CSTO has collapsed when Russia did nothing when Armenia explicitly asked for support against an attack, which could even be considered unprovoked, on its own territory.
CSTO's collapse is a matter of the past, not the future. It's really irrelevant whether 100 years from now whoever will rule Kazakhstan and Belarus will kindly laugh at the fact that TECHNICALLY they are in an alliance that they never bothered to explicitly give up on.
TECHNICALLY, Transnistria is still USSR. Does this mean that USSR hasn't collapsed yet?
Suppose there must be a number of member states of The Russian Federation that are not particularly happy about Putin's war...So, when will we see the federation break up?
None of them have any political independence.
It's a federation in name only, most of the "republics" and Oblasts have the same amount of independence as counties in the UK.
Almost all of the taxes flow straight to Moscow to be redistributed to the regions which they rarely are.
The only entity within the Russian federation that has any degree of independence is Chechnya, and even that is essentially the same kind of arrangement as old timey client kings of empires where Chechnya is the personal property of Ramzan Kadyrov and Kadyrov swears loyalty to -the emperor- Putin.
It's not impossible that the federation could dissolve, but it couldn't do it on it's own. It would require foreign sponserships.
Perhaps they should reach out to Raid: Shadow legends or Raycon?
@@moritamikamikara3879 It's even more impossible for them to rebel now that the male population of the eastern Oblasts and republics is being sent as cannon fodder in Ukraine, There's rumours already of small villages in siberia where all it's men were wiped out in the war and there's many more where the entire village was mobilized.
@@moritamikamikara3879 Raid:Shadow Legends redemption arc? 0_0
Imagine them saving the world by promoting more independent states?
@@vicente4966 That's brutal, I trust you but still, can I get source for the info that it's mostly ethnic men being mobilized
Russia is "federation" in name only. Its one of the most centralized states on the planet.
in fact like 70 percent of whole federation economy is denominated in Moscow and Petersburg... everyone else is left scraps with the costs of resource plundering offloaded to locals.
Armenia's geopolitical location couldn't be any worst. In honesty, its best bet is really Iran due to just pure locational reasons. But if you ask me for long-term defense cooperation it has to be US and namely joining NATO. Turkey and Israel are low-key, not lowkey literary supplying Azerbaijan with arms. the Eu basically depends on Azerbaijan for natural gas now that Russia is sanctioned due to the Ukraine war. China is way too far to be efficient here and Russia is fighting a losing war with Ukraine. The US is Armenia is only hope man.
I kinda feel Putin’s vision after a successful annexation of Ukraine would’ve been to annex Moldova and Georgia before attempting to fully integrate the rest of the CSTO into the Union State alongside existing members Russia and Belarus. It may not be the former Soviet or even Russian Empire borders but it’d be massive for the country and for Putin’s own legacy.
xD he failed so hard
3:22 Nagarono Karabakh might belong in the bloopers segment lol
💀
Thank you for covering Tajik assault on Kyrgyz borders. This event went completely overlooked by western and even russian media and was never discussed beyond "yet another border dispute case". I wouldn't say russia kept peace in the region exactly, this was the second assault in two years and this time bolder and bigger in scale. There were speculations that Tajikistan received blessing from russia to go through with this, because shortly after their president was given a medal from Putin himself and the assault happened shortly after Kyrgyzstan signed a trade deal with China that would allow to ship Chinese goods to Europe bypassing russia completely.
Anyway, there are now calls for quitting CSTO in Kyrgyzstan as well, we missed the latest training as a result, but I doubt we would leave it soon, since we're somewhat vulnerable without any prominent allies.
Thanks for info. Make a video topic suggestion. The link is in the description of the video. I have made the suggestion as well, but I know litterary nothing aboute the dispute, this is the first time I hear about it. More people suggesting it might mean more probability of a video about it.
@@samuela-aegisdottir Thanks, I didn't realise you could make a topic suggestion. I'll give it a go!
Is the Tajik-Kyrgyz conflict yet another water war?
I can imagine Putin going full Dolly Parton and singing "Jinping, Jinping, Jinping, Jinpiiiing. I'm begging of you please don't take my allies."
Calling the CSTO a military alliance is a bit much. It's a list of countries Russia agrees not to invade as long as they keep paying protection money.
A defensive pack so good that it doesn't defend
"It is an alliance centered around Russia" fixed that for you xD xD
everything today is collapsing... the EU, CSTO, China and its housing market, the UK, Russia, the financial market and so on
what a time to be alive
China's impending collapse will be one hell of a Ride for everybody
How is the EU or the financial market collapsing? A little recession never hurt anyone. Well, except the people who lost their jobs.
Now, this will be interesting, because Armenia, as mentioned by various comments there, have an even stronger relationship with Russia, a relationship that cannot be underestimated because of Armenia's status as the second oldest ally of Russia (after Serbia). We can see some pattern.
For India, this country has been more successful at diversifying market, but it is still dependant on Russian weapons - the betrayal of Armenia by Russia directly hits Indian population's political morale as Russia has become unreliable. For Vietnam, this country is even more reliant on Russia but Vietnam is more autocratic and very hard to reform without toppling the Communist Party - the betrayal of Armenia by Russia will severely impact Hanoi's ability due to China is now far more powerful than Russia. At the same time, VCP is fractured by infighting, when Trong is the only final leader in Vietnam who are truly pro-Chinese (Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Pham Binh Minh are hardly friendly even though they share authoritarian mindset). And China will never arm Vietnam because China has territorial issues.
For Saudi Arabia, Russia's backstabbing of Armenia blew up the myth of Russia as Riyadh's new friend - now MBS is scrambling with Iran (one of Russia's main allies) openly threatens Saudi Arabia and is now seeking for American support. Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans, whose governments are Russia-friendly, will view Russia with even deeper suspicion and will likely to invite more Latin Americans to openly oppose Russia.
The only people who are likely to stay pro-Russian are the Black Africans, largely because Black Africans care nothing about the outside world.
Our (India's) reliance on Russia is _entirely_ just a hardware legacy: way before the invasion, we backed out of the PAK FA fighter. At the time I really didn't understand why, and thought it was a poor decision, but it's turning out to have been quite a prescient decision. The Su-57 that it was supposed to be based on severely underperformed, and even _before_ Russia abandoned Armenia (when Russia had a more or less spotless record of support), the sense was "the odds are good but the goods are odd". After the abandonment, the odds aren't even good, but the goods are still odd.
CSTO failed to help Armenia when they requested it. What good is a defense treaty if no one shows up to help when you get invaded?
Other CSTO members are actively fighting each other. CSTO is a joke.
India is another possible partner. Armenia is already negotiating for purchase of some artillery from India. While India rarely gets involved militarily they are seeking to sell military equipment.
"Speaking of neighbors and travelling..." ^^
Very true about Kazakhstan
China has never been a friend of Russia but Ukraine was ... until Putin decided to destroy it. Russia was left alone.
Ukraine was never Russia ally. China and Russia are big allies. Putin showed he doesn't care whatl China does because he knows they are on same page, both like communism, both hate west, both are not democratic. And if you didn't know, they are offically allies.
@@randomdude3090 The alliance between Russia and China are just words, and they cost nothing. The only thing the two countries have in common is a common enemy, nothing more. Russia receives from China contracts for raw materials with a large discount instead of aid. China is taking over Central Asia where Russia has always ruled. Putin is too weak to win anything against China, and the Chinese know it and will ruthlessly exploit it. This "alliance" is an act of desperation on the part of Putin who is left alone and will cost Russia dearly.
@@veritaspk If Russia wants to Survive they need China. Putin's actions showed je doesn't care if Russia becomes reliant of China. Trust me: if China makes an alliance, Russia is gonna be in that alliance too. China is using Russia and Putin knows it. He can only look at Russia and central asia slowly becoming China's puppets.
@@randomdude3090 Russia doesn't need China to survive, Putin does. The war in Ukraine is not about the survival of Russia as a state, but about the survival of an authoritarian system of power. That's why Putin is getting closer to China ... he knows he will sell his country and his people ... but at least he will retain power.
@@veritaspk Yes. But Russia still needs China to be a world power. Very soon USA and China will start a war over Taiwan. Russia will pick China's side and maybe even supply them because if they lose China Putin will lose everything and won't have another world power to support him. Russia will be left alone. Which means defeat for Putin. Russia will not leave China anytime soon. And China wants to controll Russia so they won't leave Russia too.
10:19 - 10:23
"We have no plans on restocking any of these items"
Editors forgot to put a 😧 there...
it's crazy that Azerbaijan, which is more authoritarian, is a big ally of the EU but Armenia which is fully democratic is super close allies with authoritarian Russia and China.
Azerbaijan has oil.
Was in Armenia recently. In Artashat met the Russian Army (have a picture to prove it) on the way to Khor Virap.
The buffer zone with Turkey is next to it and quite big. Like 1 km patrolled by Russians only. Disturbing trucks with written армия России ...
Last year I was on the Turkish side between Ani and Doğubeyazıt area and you can easily spot Turkish military, checkpoints and military base in the proximity to the non recognized but de facto border.
I guess Armenia can be patrolled by EU as it's a working democracy. France (as it has huge interests in Armenia) can intervene. Maybe a democratic alliance rather than Fascist Russia
issue is the EU is reliant on azeri oil and gas right now so seems unlikely they would do anything to provoke azerbaijan.
@@justinianmakesbyzantiumgre5716 It's truer to say some of the EU are reliant. France generates most its energy from nuclear and gas from Spain. Britain isn't EU but is similar in getting gas from Southern Europe rather than Azer. So there might be a situation of France and other energy secure members supporting Armenia.
Would be really fun if Armenia joins NATO just to spite Russia. It wouldn't change the disputed status of Nagorno Karabakh but NATO will be bound to protect against any invasion of Armenia proper.
Sadly, Turkey won't allot that
@@Alexander-sr7qm yep. True. Ordinarily, I would be happy about a Russian ally being screwed over. But I feel really sad for Armenians. They don't deserve this. And Turkey has been horrible for them
@@gazpachopolice7211 they aren't a Russian ally by choice .. its a landlock small country without natural resources surrounded with muslim countries
Russia mocked Europe for going cold in the winter. But Ukraine has allies that make sacrifices for them, whereas Russia has partners that take advantage of Russia. No one in India is suggesting to buy Russian crude at WTI prices to help out their friend
China is also makes advantage of Russia by slowly inserting its influence to former Soviet republics (Kyrgyzstan being the most prominent example) and African countries
This is exactly why populists are never the solution. Everything is transactional with them, there is no genuine friendship or common goals or values with these people. I'll never forget Bolsonaro the next day Trump lost acting like: "Trump? Who dat? Long live Biden!" Or Johnson in the UK mocking Trump at a meeting behind his back. Even if you go back to dictators like Hitler or Stalin, on one hand they admired each other, on the other hand they had no qualms waging war against one another. It happened that Hitler invaded first, but Stalin was himself preparing to invade. Such spineless weaklings. As someone once said: "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything".
Yes, China have been eroding Russia influence in central asia. Hard to deny their money, especially when you're landlocked (or even double landlocked lol) and depend on gas exports.
China has been largest importer of Russian fossil fuel.
Japan, China & France are largest importer of Russian LNG last month. As LNG is not sanctioned.
Same Uranium is not sanctioned, US is buying it. US did sanctioned fertilizer, lifted it within a week.
LOVE THE THUMBNAIL
Why is the belt and road initiative “infamous” ? In my opinion it’s doing good for a lot of in need countries
The buildings are often filled with hidden microphones and anything that is built is built very cheaply of the country has to pay china back for the construction debt trapping them
It's infamous because countries keep failing to pay. Some say it's China's "debt trap initiative" others say it's more like China's incompetence, that China is overextending itself.
Also, my country recently stepped down from some BRI deals one of the reasons being that Chinese firms underbid others and then don't deliver.
Because it's not doing anything "good".
- It's building low quality roads etc. to-and-from locations that benefit CCP's interest, and ONLY those. Need a road from the hospital/city to the country side? Well too bad, CCP only needs a road from the city to the main port.
- CCP does not allow the nations to use their own construction firms or even populace etc. to build the infra, which means, the loan money is not going into the system to revitalize the economy.
- The loans are given, despite the countries inability to ever pay them back, which the CCP seems to count on, which they can then use to leverage the countries to give up their major ports for CCP's military usage, putting them into very precarious position regarding internal security and international relations.
- CCP pollutes like crazy. Whatever they are building, you can be assured that all the waste is left where it is and handled with the utmost irresponsibility.
- Owing your alliegence through depts to a group that not only is committing genocide, organ harvesting, forced abortions (which might soon turn into forced impregnation), constantly ignoring & breaking the international law, honors no deals it makes and is the picture perfect description of a dystopian surveillance state, MIGHT not be the best idea either.
Kazakhstan and Armenia are in an interesting position because they could realistically seek closer ties to Europe and NATO. Kazakhstan especially since it has a substantial amount of territory in Europe so it could even join the EU. Armenia might have a tougher time though since NATO seems to currently favor Azerbaijan since it's an ally of NATO member Turkey.
Basically CSTO is as much voluntarily joined as the infamous Warsaw Pact was. And that is why it disintegrated as soon there was no bully (USSR) who forced other parties into it and whoever only could rushed to join NATO as soon as possible. The same goes for CSTO; as soon as Russia looses the war with Ukraine the CSTO ceases to exist. Hopefully the sooner the better
China overtaking russia is like if Frieza took hell away from satan...both are terrible people
No one else helping Armenia shows how useful this "alliance" is
Could you consider doing videos on Chile’s current situation?
Make a video suggestion. the link is in the description of the video.
It's collapsing for a reason. Azerbaijan has invaded Armenia twice, and Russia's done nothing. What's the point in an alliance if the "ally" won't even come to your aid?
I am not a historian. All I have is an A level History 1974. All this sounds so like the mid nineteenth century squabbling between states and dynasties that I studied. Serious growing up is needed.
People don't change
Like how the logo of CSTO basically copies NATO's one being at the same overloaded with small details making it practically impossible to use even as a flag, not to mention smaller forms of use.
At this point is there even really a difference between the modern term "regional superpowers" (referring to countries like the US, China, I've even heard it thrown around the EU and Russia a couple times) versus the old term "great power" (with the likes of Britain, France, and Germany)
I thought there were supposed to be just 1 maybe 2 superpowers but at this point there's more Superpowers than there were Great Powers by many definitions
- So you'll defend me if someone else attacks me, right?
- Yes, if someone *else* attacks you.
- ...
Realistically it's in Armenia's best interest to stay within CSTO, but also adding a firmer Iranian military presence along with (proverbially) Chinese "guarantees". With hostile Turks on both sides wanting to vanquish them, there's really no other option, neither France nor the US will get themselves too tangled with the Caucasus conflicts.
It for what benefit? They have a bigger chance trying NATO
I love how the UK is not even an option
@@inteallsviktigt If NATO thinks it can stretch its reach into some of these central Asian nations. And how it feels about taking in some of them without being democracies.
Meanwhile, China often makes a show of being a reasonably negotiable partner and alternative with a policy that you do what you want with your local minorities or democratic expectations.
@@inteallsviktigt Turkey, a NATO member, would never allow that. Just look how they didn`t even want to let Sweden or Finland join based on possibly made up claims of Kurdish cooperation.
@@SusCalvin well it’s a bigger chance than Russia helping them. Or they could always join china.
Nothing of value would be lost.
CSTO is a better joke than anything Zelensky said in his lifetime.
This is why "declare war" against your allies should be greyed out.
I think it was always a unstable alliance
The war in Ukrainian just made it even more unstable
The problem with the prices is not the prices themselves but the sending cost. I don't remember right now but to my country, Spain, it was a lot. Like, your offer equals to a very, very small amount of the total I have to pay.
It's the same problem I find getting the "free stuff" from Nintendo, anything that is supposed to be free ends up costing me 10 bucks. Which is a lot for cheap stuff like cards or similar.
Meanwhile NATO is stronger than it has ever been and will only become stronger with new additions. Its crazy how quickly one really big mistake can change things. Especially when you double and triple down on the mistake...
Armenia is considering India as a partner or at least they should in terms of Econ and Defence ties.
*I really feel it would be GREAT for 🇦🇲Armenia (& 🇦🇿Azerbaijan) if they can apply for 🇪🇺EU (& possibly NATO) membership as they’re Western oriented, will really be focused into development & mutual cooperation 🤝 rather than fighting between themselves - just like their neighbour 🇬🇪Georgia has been applying recently.*
As an example, 🇬🇷Greece has had tensions with its neighbours like 🇦🇱Albania, 🇲🇰North Macedonia & 🇹🇷Turkïye - but because they’re in the EU/ NATO, they have never become full conflicts in recent history.
(Unlike 🇷🇺Russia-🇧🇾Belarus-🇺🇦Ukraine-🇲🇩Moldova-🇬🇪Georgia which are currently members of neither and have been in conflict in recent times)
This would only work if both countries join together otherwise one would leverage its position over the other. But i do agree with you if turkey was a part of eu or if greece wasn't they'd be equal and the issues would be solved faster.
But i do also think that azerbaijan and armenia's issues are a lot more important than turkey and greece's i can see our issues be solved without killing people or giving land away but a border dispute is harder to solve but it would incentivize them to end the border dispute nontheless.
Azerbaijan as a dictatorship has nothing to look for in the EU
This is definite a stress test for the CSTO. Russia has a lot of control over the organization, so they are key to the organization's success. It all. depends on how hands on Russia is, with it's current organizations. The war in Ukraine showed how limited cooperation in the CSTO is without Russia's help. So, maybe the organization could survive if they reform it and decentralize the power, but to do that the territorial disputes between neighbors has to be resolved which is an issue in of itself.
Virgin csto 🤓 vs gigachad nato 😎
First time knowing such organization existed
Literally everyone watching this: Armenia is in the CSTO???
What a beautiful acronym> RATS... how descriptive.
Armenia should ally more with the west. Since azerbaiyan is allied to turkey and armenia to russia, they can be constantly at war because the alliances dont care, but NATO would never let turkey (another member) aid azerbaiyan against armenia. Turkey probably doesn't want armenia in nato though
After learning a bit more about the whole thing, one thing is clear. The abundance of oil and gas has turned azerbaijan in yet another authoritharian petrol state and whose autocrat (president since 2003 XD) thinks he can start killing left and right to further his goals, while Armenia is much more democratic and free, most likely for having less resources.
Armenia doesn't have the means to defend itself but azerbaiyan does, we should defend Armenia for now and make them redraw their borders so Armenia retains their armenian populated areas and grant a UN defended corridor for the Azerbaiyan exclave. Then, integrate Armenia into the alliance. Azerbaiyan should be on their own until they depose their regime
Azerbaijan has relations with western oil companies.
also turkey can veto armenia joining nato
Armenia literally claiming Estern Turkey is Western Armenia. They are claiming land of a NATO ally. So they cannot be in NATO or NATO members cannot aid their military. You cannot arm rival counties of your allies.
I'm sure an agreement could be reached to everyone's satisfaction. I feel sorry about what's happening to Armenia and we should try to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict there.
Imagine China collapses into a warlord period again, while also being the head of the replacement CSTO
That's what you get when you get yourself a NATO Bootleg lol
the map @ 7:36 is very confusing, the range is a problem 0-1-5-10-25-100. the statistician in me has a problem with that key, makes tiny things look big.
Great work guys....I enjoy your content and journalism.. . 👏
Hand delivering merch sounds like unnecessary carbon emissions to me though 😶
Better not... those exclaves contain inland water source which I doubt both side would cede lands. It makes sense Kazakhstan to ensure stability there since they don't have to traverse mountains and give help in time.
Armenia will never be in NATO cuz Turkey will always veto it
They ll be long gone before sending an application anyway
What happened to the video with the Iranian protests? Did it just get taken out by youtube or something
In an ideal world, NATO would boot out Turkey, condemn them for the genocide (and for generally being a corrupt dictatorship) and embrace Armenia.
Key word here is 'ideal' - I'm well aware of Turkey's strategic importance to NATO.
In an ideal world,there would be no NATO to begin with
Yeah and support the russian state of armenia that supports russia when it invades georgis because georgia wants to join nato? I swear man you guys are smoking pots. Armenia doesn't even opens its archives for the genocide claims. Only reason a lot of countries do recognize it is because there are tons of rich armenian people in the west lobbying politicians. They wouldn't recognize if they didn't funding for their programs or else they wouldn't recognize it wheter it's real or not they're not angels. A french parliament member asked one another to go back to africa who the hell are they to preach about racism. France even supported the huti governmenr in rwanda. France supports saudi arabia on yemen saudi's are making a famine and bombing civilians. Saudis bombed funerals and hospitals. Who the hell are they to kick out another country from nato because of a disproved genocide that happened 100 years ago when they're promoting mass murder today.
Least patriotic Armenian
Ideal and America should not be used in one sentence
@DownloadPizza they didn't
But they mentioned NATO which is logical American
9:49 Folks from anywhere in the world can participate? Sounds brilliant.. I might just consider signing up for it.
Honestly, putting CSTO peacekeepers in occupied parts of Ukraine is probably a good way to put more strain on the alliance, just like the US dragging everyone into a mess in Afghanistan made several members severely reluctant to follow them into Iraq.
You advertise your shop but most of badges are out of stock
“…Keep your friends closer”.
“Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer.”
Putin never really had any allies other than Syria or Belarus.
the fact you need to spend so much time explaining the csto tells us all we need to know
There's a bunch of regional cooperational organisations I'd like to know more about. The African Union, the economic union southeast asian nations have and others. Just because I haven't learned about them doesn't mean they're not there.
Hard times look coming for nations.
CSTO truly is a formidable force, provided they encounter only unarmed civilians. 🐔
What is the point of the CSTO when it’s members didn’t assist Armenia when it was invaded by Azerbaijan? It’s like joining a golf club but is not allowed to use the course 🤣🤣
Lol, Russia is really burning all bridges it can, even with it's own allies xD
Great video!
"They are now exclusively relient for defence on the same country that they are worried might invade them" (2:57)
exactly that has happened to Czechoslovakia in 1968. It got invaded by the leader of its military alliance. Guess who it was.
This is why the Warsaw pact colapsed: it was anti-American and pro-Russian, but its members were afraid of Russia, not America.
It’s Nagorno-Karabakh, not Nagarano.
TLDR is isekaied.
Russia has a bizarre history of choosing the worst of leaders that are hellbent on needless suffering for their own people and neighbors, as well as disastrous unforced errors.
lol. Russians *choosing* their leaders.
RATS? LOL
Drinks with Team TLDR?!!!!?! ->> me rabidly making purchases… see you in Hollywood. 😝
China won't just grab Russia's allies, they will likely grab some territory currently part of Russia... The Primorsky Krai to be specific.
China's policy has been to keep others territory away. They get around it by defining Taiwan and bits of the sea as Chinese territory and they have a couple weird border standoffs but actually grabbing parts of Russia (or Thailand, India etc) would be pretty blatant.
As they mention, they've mostly swept others into economic dependency.
@@SusCalvin : The Chinese officals have already mentioned the "chineseness" of Vladivostok.
Mind you, the Primorsky Krai is also known under two other names. In the West as Outer Manchuria, in China as Outer North East.
It was lost to Imperial Russia as part of the so called "Unequal Treaties". It's official policy to reverse those.
...in essence, the Chinese define this as Chinese territory. The border treaties the Chinese have with Russia are irrelevant in their eyes and only a consequence / continuation of the unequal treaties.
Meaning, if Russia becomes weak enough, the Chinese will start pressing their claim.
@@bikkiikun Yeah, defining some contested area as part of China is a way to get around their policy of not intervening in others internal affairs.
I want to see what happens with the chinese naval bases in Africa and their civilian companies operating there.
@@SusCalvin : The Party will either use the debt traps they set up or the fear of the corrupt rulers for their lives and riches...
Or they suddenly "discover" a map from the Ming or Tang times... to justify any claim (wouldn't be the first time).
@@bikkiikun I remember when they made up some janky historical stuff to conclude that the Dalai Lama should be a chinese appointment. It's what I mean when I say they want to define external conflicts as internal matters.
Hand-delivering the 10,000th order to celebrate your first myriad will be a great honour for the customer receiving it.
Very likely he / she will organise a receiving party for you!
2:42 "neo-soviet ambitions" as if Russia hasn't been a capitalist country for 30 years
The operative word being "neo" ..
It's not about communism, it's more about empire building (or regaining). Russia today is practically fascist.
@@Pyriold This.
More or less Russia wanting to be a big player again.
@@ItsAweeb which just means "new" and doesn't make the statement any less dumb
@@Pyriold if that's the case they could have just said "imperial ambitions", but they didn't because they have no clue what they're talking about
Don't say "Azeri" when you mean "Azerbaijani." "Azeri" is an ethno-linguistic group, "Azerbaijani" is a nationality. All Azerbaijanis are Azeri, but NOT all Azeris are Azerbaijani. Most Azeris actually live in Iran.
Would be kinda funny if Armenia joins NATO now
Not so long as Turkey is a NATO member.
2:00 We don't rely to heavily on the US; The US spends too much. If the US decreased its spending we'd be fine with picking up some of the slack but NATO already spends more than the rest of the world combined. Why would we ever need more than that?
I agree. Besides China, there are no countries that can rival the military might of European nations like Britain and France. Even if NATO didn't exist and the US were not willing to protect Europe it wouldn't matter really. There are no countries powerful enough to invade Europe.
Having realized that Ruzzians aren't trustworthy? It took them this long?
Given how the CTSO undeniably failed Armenia it better get outta there…
❤️🇺🇦