NK Conflict Tension may be Advantageous for Putin only, to Sit at the Big Policy Table, His Feet on that Very Table: Andrei Piontkovsy
Andrei Piontkovsky, Russian political analyst and publicist, in an interview with “Apostrophe” stated that tension of situation in Nagorno Karabakh, which took lives of hundreds of people, may be beneficiary to the Kremlin only, as Armenia and Azerbaijan aren’t interested in conflict escalation.
Thus, the expert considers that militarily a “wall” situation has been established in Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia has established a serious defensive line, which under any readiness, will be very difficult to pierce. Besides, exactly the Armenian side doesn’t pretend to further extension.
Out of this, Piontkovsky considers under current situation it’s necessary to seek for the interest of a third party.
“Russian media outlets hint that it’s Turkey, which targeted at blackening “great Russia, rising from its knees” instigated Azerbaijan to open another front against Armenia. And the latter, as it’s known, is Russia’s ally, which means—a front has been opened against Russia. However, it’s hard to believe that Azerbaijan would easily give way to such risky adventures for the sake of Erdogan’s ambitions,” Piontkovsky said.
“However, it seems to me, Moscow is more interested in this tension. Vladimir Putin, as the biggest actor, has already offered his service for peace establishment in the region, moreover, that peacefulness will provide him the opportunity to quite openly deploy troops on conflicting parties’ dividing line, upon approval of those same Western leading powers with ears flapping. And this is not a simple control towards Armenia and Azerbaijan, which Moscow has, but it’s towards Georgia as well. An issue emerges at once—develop the channel to Russian military base in Gyumri, and that channel lies through the territory of Georgia,” Russian analyst clarified.
Piontkovsky explains escalation of situation in Nagorno Karabakh also by elections to be held in Georgia, in which pro-Russian “Georgian dream” party of Bidzina Ivanishvili may lose.
“Replying to the classic question, to whom this may be profitable, I tend to suppose—only to Putin, so that he declares himself the biggest peacemaker for the third time. Putin needs to appear on the TV all the time, as a global policy “problem-solver,” so that he either waged a war or suspended it, or pacified. What is crucial, that he was always at a big policy table, his feet on that very table,” Russian analyst concludes.
