By December 2024, RF defense minister Andrey Belousov outlined the priorities in the field of ensuring Russia’s security at an expanded meeting of the ministry’s board, noting “the fulfillment of individual tasks” and the military presence in Central Asia and Africa, the Caucasus, and Transnistria.
The importance of the Middle Corridor (also known as the Central Corridor or the “Trans-Caspian Transport Route”) has increased sharply in 2022-2024 against the background of the reform of the Eurasian land and sea routes due to the war in Ukraine and the blockade of the Suez Canal.
Over the past decade, the relevance of the term “post-Soviet space” has been questioned multiple times. Critics argue that the collapse of the USSR marked the fall of a colonial empire, where Russia’s dominance was the only unifying element.
The present Azerbaijani policy is largely based on “reverse” propaganda, projecting the reasonable criticism of the destructive actions of the Azerbaijani authorities on their opponents, in particular – on Armenia. I.
The article examines the specifics of the role of the South Caucasus in the system of international relations within the light of the previous (until 2020) balance of interests between Russia and the West, as well as their current confrontation. The author presents a brief analysis of the history of the relations between the centers of power in the South Caucasus after the collapse of the USSR, and also highlights the key problems that may arise in the process of revising the place of the South Caucasus region within the context of the modern geopolitics.
