In 2008, the Soviets--uh, the Russians--invaded Georgia. In March of 2014 they invaded Crimea--and swallowed it, whole. Currently they are invading eastern Ukraine; perhaps in order to build a land bridge to Crimea. Obviously, Vladimir Putin wishes to re-establish as much of the old Russian empire as possible. Is it possible that Kazakhstan is next on his hit list? From The Moscow Times: Here is the link to the entire article: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/...history-of-country-s-independence/506178.html
I don't know of any neocons who think he's a hero, so nice strawman. Most cons (of all sort) recognized that Russia was something to watch out for. Liberals ignored it--just google the reaction they (including our President) had to Romney mentioning that Russia was a major geopolitical concern. Putin is taking advantage of the "flexibility after the election" that Obama promised to Medvedev. http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...re-elections/2012/03/26/gIQASoblbS_story.html http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...romney-called-russia-our-top-geopolitical-fo/ http://www.ijreview.com/2014/03/118...romney-foreign-policy-question-2012-campaign/
Similar to Ukraine and Byelorussia, The 'stans were never, ever - nation states. Administrative "Republics" of Soviet design hardly the stuff of a country. How many hundreds of years were the 'stans effectually part of "Russia" ? And what of the "independent" 'stans ? Just more autocratic mafias running a "country" that never was not should have been. In my more Turkiphillic times I favored Turkey establishing the "Silk Road" economic community. They even organized a meeting around it sometime back but, nada happened. Moi r > g No
Turkey is just the bridge between Russia and the Mediterranean, overall [at least until the Ukrainian crisis exploded putting the process in stand by] there has been in the last years a process of construction of a kind of "bow" made by Roma - Ankara - Moscow [with a new pipeline included in the project]. A part this, may be at the Kremlin [on the base of the experience with Ukraine] they will be more cautious in interfering in the internal matters of a former Soviet Republic.
