Edvard Chesnokov, Andrey Balitsky
Since the beginning of the 2022 Ukrainian crisis, the US Department of State’s officials have increasingly intensified their diplomatic activities in Central Asia.
On May 23-27, 2022, a high-ranked American delegation, led by Assistant Secretary Donald Lu, had visited Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
On November 6-11, 2022, Mr. Lu repeated his journey, having covered Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
Then the guest’s grade had increased: on February 27 – March 1, 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
All these countries belong to Central Asia and more or less maintain neutrality in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Last year, tens of thousands of Russians travelled to their southern neighbor states to receive an international credit card as the West has expelled Russian banks from its financial services. Also — and this kind of services is much more darkened — various Russian firms use Central Asian liaisons to avoid Western import-export restrictions. Such a dark market counts billions of dollars and obviously challenges the US attempt to siege Russia with international sanctions.
Central Asia matters not only for Moscow and DC. It is the heartland of the globe’s heartland, the golden link of the longest and the oldest world’s chain that has been tying the South China Sea and the North Sea for millennia. And for almost the same long time, it also faced hostile activity of external powers aimed to disrupt the economic prosperity of Eurasia.
At this point, Central Asia could be compared with Ukraine: a multinational region with hardworking people, natural wealth, and connective geographical position — which has become a hostage of the US’ reckless policy. Every political observer remembers how on December 11, 2013, a similar high-ranked US delegation led by Victoria Nuland, then Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, had visited the kemp of the Maidan protesters in Kiev. The American guests granted activists with sandwiches — those photos went around the whole world. Ten weeks later, the same activists, armed and inspired, conducted a bloody coup which turned Ukraine into endless chaos.
What will current overseas delegations bring to Central Asia? Its American curator is another Assistant Secretary of State, Donald Lu. Despite his partly-Chinese descent, Mr. Lu is far from oriental politeness, having learned the worst from the Washington political tradition: arrogance, rudeness, and repeating a single primitive scenario from year to year.
In 1994-96, Lu worked as the US diplomat in Tbilisi, Georgia; the very same period, Chechnya, the nearby Russian region, was plunged into war by international terrorists who had unofficial support from the then-time Georgia. Can we believe that there were no American ties in this knot?
In 2005, when Lu served as Deputy Chief of the US Mission in Kyrgyzstan, this country was inflamed by a typical color revolution. Pro-Western NGOs along with galvanised street crowds overthrew legitimate leader Askar Akaev — who maintained friendship with Moscow and Beijing — and paved the way to the new president Kurmambek Bakiev. The latter used all his efforts to disrupt agreements with Russia and to keep the domestic Kyrgyz US air base Manas which was finally withdrawn only years after Bakiev’s quit.
Finally, in April 2022, as the authority responsible for South and Central Asian Affairs, Donald Lu inherently called then Pakistan PM Imran Khan to resign during the events which could be described as color revolution and coup attempt in this key regional ally of Moscow, Beijing, and Türkiye. Just imagine that a Russian, an Iranian, or a Turkish diplomat would openly call Biden to resign as some Americans question the results of the 2020 elections.
So it is obvious what political luggage the US delegation brings to Central Asia during its frequent visits. Besides Donald Lu, officers of the Pentagon, National Security Council, and USAID — an agency spreading American soft power worldwide — are also presented. The consequences of previous American military and political intrusion into other countries of the same continent are devastating — entire cities of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan were literally erased from the face of earth, hundreds of thousands died, millions became refugees.
Now in Central Asia, the White House uses the same tactics as previously in Ukraine: endorsing chauvinism, religious extremism, and instability. It is as easier as the majority of regional media and humanitarian institutions are still Western-driven. Spreading hate, they exploit and exaggerate problems which are typical for all the countries of the Asian heartland.
In Kazahkstan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is an excellent Russian and Chinese language speaker and strong protector of International Law as he worked in the UN. Unfortunately, previous times — when the West had full influence on post-Soviet states — still cast shadow on the local society. In the 2010s, about 600 Kazakh radicals joined ISIS. Having graduated CIA-backed terroristic kemps, some of them returned home and set up ‘sleeping cells’. In January 2022, they woke for bloody street assaults in Alma Ata and other Kazakhstan cities. Washington condemned ‘govt violence against peaceful protesters’ highlighting whom it really supported. On the other hand, Russia provided Kazakhstan its military aid along with Chinese diplomatic one. United, Eurasian powers managed to stop clashes within days, while the US was unable to destroy ISIS for years. But Western-inspired nationalists are still active in Kazakhstan. There are multiple cases when they conduct so-called ‘language patrols’ attacking women and elders who can’t speak the Kazakh language — especially Russians and other ethnic minorities of this multinational country.
To the South, in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, a boundary conflict at their non-delimitated borderline is being artificially provoked. The US covertly expresses support to both sides. Same way, it pushed then Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili to attack Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia in 2008; the result was catastrophic for Saakashvili and his land, but Washington never cares about its protégé’s fail.
As well as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan — the last country of this Central Asian four — shares border with Afghanistan. The latter fell into chaos as US troops infamously fled it in 2021; in its remote zones, ISIS rose — as it did in Iraq with the 2014 American forces withdrawal. Now ISIS gangs are perpetually attacking Uzbek and Tajik border-guards, posing the risk of further escalation. So the White House tactic is obvious: to create a problem and to offer a solution. The price would be joining the group of American unequal allies and losing the country’s sovereignty.
People of Central Asia have made their decision explicitly: to maintain and strengthen their centennial economic and cultural ties with Russia, China, Türkiye, Iran, and other independent actors for the common prosperity. Will the political elites be able to make the same choice?
About the authors
Edvard Chesnokov is a foreign policy expert contributing to Komsomolskaya Pravda (Russia), Global Times (China), Harici (Türkiye), Iran Daily, and other international media.
Andrey Balitsky is a journalist and political analyst from Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Source:
https://lenta.ru/news/2022/01/08/no/
