If it’s determined with a high degree of confidence that Pakistan is in bed with ISIS-K as part of a Western plot to destabilize Afghanistan and Russia’s soft Central Asian underbelly, then security considerations could take precedence over political and economic ones to reshape Russian-Pakistani ties.
There are better chances of laying a pipeline connecting Russia and India through China than through Afganistan and Pakistan. The latter two are just too unstable.
Pakistan in particular is politically unreliable and a poor investment, based on indebtedness alone. Its record of sponsoring Islamist terrorist proxies—while feigning "anti-terrorism"—is clear, notwithstanding U.S.-subsidized PR on behalf of its GCC sponsors.
This does not even mention Pakistan's role as a logistical conduit for anti-multipolar activity in Central Asia (through formats like TRIPP), as the Cold War and the 1990s demonstrated. Pakistan's links to Turkey and the GCC is to some degree inherently anti-Russia.
Last year's attacks in Kashmir (Pahalgam), among countless other cases since 9/11, show that Pakistani society is organically intertwined with extremist infrastructure, both ideological and physical, with informal, tacit backing in elite factions.
This by itself is reason enough for Russia (and China) to distrust Pakistan.
Please, look at a map. You have 3000km through the highest mountains of the world to pass from Russia to India through China: Altaï, Tian Shan, Désert of Xing Jiang and Himalaya.
After 4 years the USA was tossed out of Afghastan. Russia will see to it that America will never get back into that country. It is Russia's neighbor. America is 10,000 miles away.
There are better chances of laying a pipeline connecting Russia and India through China than through Afganistan and Pakistan. The latter two are just too unstable.
Pakistan in particular is politically unreliable and a poor investment, based on indebtedness alone. Its record of sponsoring Islamist terrorist proxies—while feigning "anti-terrorism"—is clear, notwithstanding U.S.-subsidized PR on behalf of its GCC sponsors.
This does not even mention Pakistan's role as a logistical conduit for anti-multipolar activity in Central Asia (through formats like TRIPP), as the Cold War and the 1990s demonstrated. Pakistan's links to Turkey and the GCC is to some degree inherently anti-Russia.
Last year's attacks in Kashmir (Pahalgam), among countless other cases since 9/11, show that Pakistani society is organically intertwined with extremist infrastructure, both ideological and physical, with informal, tacit backing in elite factions.
This by itself is reason enough for Russia (and China) to distrust Pakistan.
Please, look at a map. You have 3000km through the highest mountains of the world to pass from Russia to India through China: Altaï, Tian Shan, Désert of Xing Jiang and Himalaya.
Thanks for your great work Andrew!
We've restacked and shared this link on 'The Stacks'
https://askeptic.substack.com/p/the-stacks
After 4 years the USA was tossed out of Afghastan. Russia will see to it that America will never get back into that country. It is Russia's neighbor. America is 10,000 miles away.
Ukraine too , Armenia too, Azerbaijan too.