The timing amidst continued US-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine suggests that the US expects this ramped-up pressure to raise the chances of coercing concessions from Russia.
Why did Russia & Iran allow the US to become a mayor player in the Armenia/Azerbaijan area? They failed miserably to stop US interference in this critical area.
If Iran gave up its Mid-East ambitions - by concluding peace with Israel primarily and letting the Turks, Saudis, Quwaitis and Qataris be the bad guys - it could probably pursue its Northern interests. But the Ayatollas are too dumb for that.
I don't know if Iranians are stupid but you seem expert in this post .
What peace with Israël. Are you so stupid yourself that you can't understand that Israël don't give a shit to a peace with Iran. Israël want to destroy and tear Iran like it was made in Irak and Syria.
The US can play this game of globetrotting, cherry picking, I give you this and I take that from you game for a limited time only. Iran and North Korea both are standing up and dealing with the pressure many decades ago. The game will end when the US forces a conflict next time on a country that has the capacity to fight back seriously. And that country just might turn out to be Iran where the ‘art of the deal’ is turning again.
Afghanistan lasted 20 years and ended pitifully for USA. Is there any politician who politically paid the price for that mess based on a lie? No.
Irak resistance lasted 10 years, 5000 US soldiers dead. Is there any politician who paid the price for that mess based on a huge lie? No.
Vietnam last 12 years, 70000 US deads and ended pitifully. Id there any politician who paid the price for that mess based on a lie? No.
Those who payed, sometime with their life, like JFK, are those who want to stop these messes.
In USA there's is always a bounty for leaders who launch wars. And more the war last, more the shareholders , officials and executives of CMI feed like pigs.
Fantasises upon silly schemes. The russian corridor isn't planned, it exists,and has been working for years while the american one is planned. What happened to the Indian-uae-Israel corridor? Absolutly nothing. Russian troops are stationed at the Erevan airport, checking documents. Supply corridor to Kazakhstan over the Caspian Sea??? Lol. Can you send some drones, starlink terminals, a gun? Ofcourse. You can also do that by renting a truck and going through 100 other routes. Look at a map, and see how many border crossings and ports there are. Iran literally found 10s of thousands of starlink terminals, and they had 100x times less routes to check. Imagine any of these countries in Caucauses actually cause trouble for Russia, and a SMO is needed, would it take a week, a month maybe to occupy them all? Absurd ideas only the US could think of. Russia will let them play their silly games, since they don't want the US to feel hopeless, and win the war in Ukraine. After that , a lot of things in the Caucasus, and Central Asia will change, in the attitude of those countries.
TRIPP is about to be implemented, it's Trump 2.0's flagship international infrastructure megaproject, while the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) never came anywhere close to its full capacity due to the deterrent of US sanctions and obstacles posed by Iran's decrepit infrastructure (itself the result of decades-long sanctions against that country).
As for IMEC, it might never be fulfilled, but purely for reasons beyond the foresight of those who initially agreed to it, namely the black swan of October 7th and the unforeseen Saudi-Emirati split:
Trans-Caspian logistics already exist and have been pioneered by none other than China through its "Middle Corridor" vision in partnership with Turkiye, the US will simply scale this to much larger proportions through its forthcoming investments.
And yes, absolutely, whether by sea or by air, the Trans-Caspian Corridor can indeed be used for sending military-technical equipment. Unlike with Iran's borders, there are no checks of ships or planes transiting the Trans-Caspian Corridor.
As I said, military eq in very small qt can be send ofcourse, but that changes nothing. As the war in Ukraine has shown the amount of military aid needed to keep Ukraine in the fight is beyond the West’s industrial ability. Ships can definetly be intercepted, just as planes can, whenever the russians feel like it. This is all I’m saying. It’s a pointless avenue of pressure. It will simply turn these countries into targets for no gain, other than russia’s. This is why it’s a scheme based on fantasies. Trade in the regiom has little need for this corridor , while the military aspect of it is foolish.
And as I've said, this is still a very real strategic threat to Russia, especially if it results in Kazakhstan following Azerbaijan's lead in conforming its armed forces to NATO standards. This can happen gradually over the course of years.
Furthermore, Russia's interception of planes and/or ships over the Caspian without a state of war or "special operation" being declared would immediately plunge the region into crisis, which I'm unsure that Putin wants to risk.
I feel like you're over-exaggerating Russia's political will and non-war capabilities to preempt this threat far after it's already begun materializing through Armenia and Azerbaijan's pro-US pivot of the past several years that was just solidified.
This assumption that Russia always has everything under control and therefore all latent threats should be downplayed since there's no way that they'll ever become critical is precisely the attitude responsible for Russia's many setbacks.
Russia doean't have everything under control. It's setbacks come from the dissolution of the USSR and more importantly the destruction of all systems that make a country, which had to be rebuild from scratch. Once the SMO wraps, the Caucasuses can be dealt with in a day. The target will clearly be Azerbadjan which has begun to think too much of itself. The Central Asian states will never go against Russia, unless China starts acting like the US. China and Russia have an understanding with regards to Central Asia, formalized mainly in the Shanghai Cooperation Treaty: russia deals with security issues, while China can do its economic policies. Central Asia can't be meanigfullly reached as it is isolated. Georgia is a small country that changed its tone 180 degrees after its defeat. Armenia is a small country that can be bought or occupied in a weekend.
Moscow had a hand in how Caucasian borders were drawn from Czarist and Soviet times, and post-Soviet Russia continued these divide and conquer policies to provide balance and make their presence indispensable. They could have easily avoided the Karabakh/ Nakhichevan & exclave border irregularities (nothing compared to what they did in the Fergana Valley!), and they had a hand in supporting successionists in South (but not North!) Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transdniestria, etc. This worked, at the expense of great local resentment, while no regional or local actor could contest their position - but now that's over.
I don't see how they can reverse this unless they invade and neutralize Azerbaijan, alone or with Iran, and take that piece off the chessboard.
true, but most happened during anti-russian rulers like lenin-trotsky or hrushcev; this should be a lesson for anyone (europe is going down the same way as we speak) that, when you buy the services of evil, you also take their karma, so you make them a favor, not the opposite.
A look at the map & Vance's talks makes no sense. Russia & Iran are friendss Armenia & Georgia have a lot more in common with Russia then the USA. Vance come home.
Why did Russia & Iran allow the US to become a mayor player in the Armenia/Azerbaijan area? They failed miserably to stop US interference in this critical area.
If Iran gave up its Mid-East ambitions - by concluding peace with Israel primarily and letting the Turks, Saudis, Quwaitis and Qataris be the bad guys - it could probably pursue its Northern interests. But the Ayatollas are too dumb for that.
I don't know if Iranians are stupid but you seem expert in this post .
What peace with Israël. Are you so stupid yourself that you can't understand that Israël don't give a shit to a peace with Iran. Israël want to destroy and tear Iran like it was made in Irak and Syria.
Think twice before saying others are stupid,
Israel had perfect relations with Iran under Shah and no-one was thinking about dismembering Iran.
And?
The US can play this game of globetrotting, cherry picking, I give you this and I take that from you game for a limited time only. Iran and North Korea both are standing up and dealing with the pressure many decades ago. The game will end when the US forces a conflict next time on a country that has the capacity to fight back seriously. And that country just might turn out to be Iran where the ‘art of the deal’ is turning again.
https://asiatimes.com/2026/02/false-alarm-us-iran-talks-are-not-a-countdown-to-conflict/?utm_source=The+Daily+Report&utm_campaign=3311d81fe8-DAILY_16_12_2025_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1f8bca137f-3311d81fe8-31577993&mc_cid=3311d81fe8
Afghanistan lasted 20 years and ended pitifully for USA. Is there any politician who politically paid the price for that mess based on a lie? No.
Irak resistance lasted 10 years, 5000 US soldiers dead. Is there any politician who paid the price for that mess based on a huge lie? No.
Vietnam last 12 years, 70000 US deads and ended pitifully. Id there any politician who paid the price for that mess based on a lie? No.
Those who payed, sometime with their life, like JFK, are those who want to stop these messes.
In USA there's is always a bounty for leaders who launch wars. And more the war last, more the shareholders , officials and executives of CMI feed like pigs.
See also:
https://x.com/pati_marins64/status/2021263646811181269?s=46
Fantasises upon silly schemes. The russian corridor isn't planned, it exists,and has been working for years while the american one is planned. What happened to the Indian-uae-Israel corridor? Absolutly nothing. Russian troops are stationed at the Erevan airport, checking documents. Supply corridor to Kazakhstan over the Caspian Sea??? Lol. Can you send some drones, starlink terminals, a gun? Ofcourse. You can also do that by renting a truck and going through 100 other routes. Look at a map, and see how many border crossings and ports there are. Iran literally found 10s of thousands of starlink terminals, and they had 100x times less routes to check. Imagine any of these countries in Caucauses actually cause trouble for Russia, and a SMO is needed, would it take a week, a month maybe to occupy them all? Absurd ideas only the US could think of. Russia will let them play their silly games, since they don't want the US to feel hopeless, and win the war in Ukraine. After that , a lot of things in the Caucasus, and Central Asia will change, in the attitude of those countries.
TRIPP is about to be implemented, it's Trump 2.0's flagship international infrastructure megaproject, while the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) never came anywhere close to its full capacity due to the deterrent of US sanctions and obstacles posed by Iran's decrepit infrastructure (itself the result of decades-long sanctions against that country).
As for IMEC, it might never be fulfilled, but purely for reasons beyond the foresight of those who initially agreed to it, namely the black swan of October 7th and the unforeseen Saudi-Emirati split:
https://korybko.substack.com/p/imecs-future-is-once-again-in-doubt
Trans-Caspian logistics already exist and have been pioneered by none other than China through its "Middle Corridor" vision in partnership with Turkiye, the US will simply scale this to much larger proportions through its forthcoming investments.
And yes, absolutely, whether by sea or by air, the Trans-Caspian Corridor can indeed be used for sending military-technical equipment. Unlike with Iran's borders, there are no checks of ships or planes transiting the Trans-Caspian Corridor.
As I said, military eq in very small qt can be send ofcourse, but that changes nothing. As the war in Ukraine has shown the amount of military aid needed to keep Ukraine in the fight is beyond the West’s industrial ability. Ships can definetly be intercepted, just as planes can, whenever the russians feel like it. This is all I’m saying. It’s a pointless avenue of pressure. It will simply turn these countries into targets for no gain, other than russia’s. This is why it’s a scheme based on fantasies. Trade in the regiom has little need for this corridor , while the military aspect of it is foolish.
And as I've said, this is still a very real strategic threat to Russia, especially if it results in Kazakhstan following Azerbaijan's lead in conforming its armed forces to NATO standards. This can happen gradually over the course of years.
Furthermore, Russia's interception of planes and/or ships over the Caspian without a state of war or "special operation" being declared would immediately plunge the region into crisis, which I'm unsure that Putin wants to risk.
I feel like you're over-exaggerating Russia's political will and non-war capabilities to preempt this threat far after it's already begun materializing through Armenia and Azerbaijan's pro-US pivot of the past several years that was just solidified.
This assumption that Russia always has everything under control and therefore all latent threats should be downplayed since there's no way that they'll ever become critical is precisely the attitude responsible for Russia's many setbacks.
Russia doean't have everything under control. It's setbacks come from the dissolution of the USSR and more importantly the destruction of all systems that make a country, which had to be rebuild from scratch. Once the SMO wraps, the Caucasuses can be dealt with in a day. The target will clearly be Azerbadjan which has begun to think too much of itself. The Central Asian states will never go against Russia, unless China starts acting like the US. China and Russia have an understanding with regards to Central Asia, formalized mainly in the Shanghai Cooperation Treaty: russia deals with security issues, while China can do its economic policies. Central Asia can't be meanigfullly reached as it is isolated. Georgia is a small country that changed its tone 180 degrees after its defeat. Armenia is a small country that can be bought or occupied in a weekend.
Moscow had a hand in how Caucasian borders were drawn from Czarist and Soviet times, and post-Soviet Russia continued these divide and conquer policies to provide balance and make their presence indispensable. They could have easily avoided the Karabakh/ Nakhichevan & exclave border irregularities (nothing compared to what they did in the Fergana Valley!), and they had a hand in supporting successionists in South (but not North!) Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transdniestria, etc. This worked, at the expense of great local resentment, while no regional or local actor could contest their position - but now that's over.
I don't see how they can reverse this unless they invade and neutralize Azerbaijan, alone or with Iran, and take that piece off the chessboard.
Karma.
That's exactly what will happen. An SMO is inevitable. Marat Harulin, a very informed journalist about the SMO, has already presented this thesis.
true, but most happened during anti-russian rulers like lenin-trotsky or hrushcev; this should be a lesson for anyone (europe is going down the same way as we speak) that, when you buy the services of evil, you also take their karma, so you make them a favor, not the opposite.
A look at the map & Vance's talks makes no sense. Russia & Iran are friendss Armenia & Georgia have a lot more in common with Russia then the USA. Vance come home.
Who is the chess master actually?
Andrew, out of topic: Lavrov gave three tough interviews those last days. Return to favor? Swan song?