The rising of IS presence in the Russian Caucasus clashes with the weakening of the IEC. Russian security forces killed the IEC's leader, Aliaskhab Kebekov, in April 2015. The failures of IEC give ISIS new opportunities to gain control of IEC vestiges in the region. Probably, in the near feature, the majority of the IEC's active force will be loyal to ISIS. The Russian leadership fully comprehends the threat, and is seeking to carry out pre-emptive strikes against ISIS fighters. The government has already accelerated its domestic security efforts in the region following a gun battle that Islamic militants initiated against government forces in the Chechen capital of Grozny in December 2014. IEC had been a serious threat to Russian security for several years before the major crackdown on it was launched in 2011. Since the start of the campaign, which remains ongoing, attacks inside Russia have declined by 30%. On account of a massive surge of counter-terror operations many terrorists have been killed. Also, the developments in the Caucasus can push Russia to increase its involvement in Syrian and Iraqi anti-IS frontlines, where it has recently equipped the Iraqi Security Forces with new supplies of Russian anti-tank rockets.
ISIS' creation of Wilayat Qawqaz may be a publicity effort meant to boost morale rather than a statement of intent to initiate military operations. However, ISIS has repeatedly voiced its interest in the Caucasus over the past year. The organization maintains a large base of Chechen fighters within Iraq and Syria, and frequently releases Russian-language propaganda encouraging individuals to pledge allegiance to ISIS. At all counts, both the pledge of allegiance and the declaration of Wilayat Qawqaz will enable IS to assert its continued expansion and vitality at the expense of al-Qaeda, the Russian state, and the international anti-ISIS coalition. The purpose of the Islamic State and its sponsors are to establish an instability zone in Eurasia and draw Russia into the growing conflict in the Middle East. In this case the main directions of attack will be Central Asia from Afghanistan and Caucasus from Iraq. The aims are to take control of productive oilfields in the South Caspian region, destabilize Iran and reach the Caucasus Mountains. Islamic State groups in the Caucasus will be used to contain Russian forces while ISIS will advance toward North through Caucasus and Caspian Sea regions.
Another point of the increasing crisis in the Caucasus is Armenia. The massive protests have been striking the country since June 23. The official reason for the crisis is energy prices raised by the government. Nonetheless, the main internal voice of protest is television channel Gala TV, sponsored by the US foundation National Endowment for Democracy and local unit of Radio Liberty, an organization founded as part of a large-scale Psychological Operation of the CIA during the Cold War. A rise in the activity of US-backed nongovernmental organizations and western diplomacy over the region is also observed. The blunt exercising of well-known social, political and internet technologies used for color revolutions in other post-Soviet countries creates an opportunity of further disruption. In the case of the success of a color revolution or chaos in Armenia, the South Caucasus will be hit with heavy conflagration because of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic or NKR is a de facto independent state established as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh War between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. The war ended with a ceasefire in 1994. Today, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains one of several frozen conflicts in the former Soviet Union. An escalation of the situation has been observed since autumn of 2014. On March 20 2015 alone, between 10 and 20 Armenian soldiers were killed in a clash against the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. In the case of a color revolution in Armenia the conflict over NKR will be defrosted and the Armenia-Azerbaijan war will be restarted.
Also, we cannot ignore the USA's attempts to encourage Georgia in ideas of aggressive military policy in the region. The main directions of military escalation in this case are the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia. Furthermore, Georgia already has experience with military aggression against the Republic of South Ossetia from 2008. Under pressure from the USA, Georgia can increase the support of terrorist groups in the North Caucasus as it already did during the governance of Mikhail Saakashvili. The USA isn't worried about the fact that Georgia will become one of the terror victims on account of this strategy.
Thus, we observe the well-known US policy of setting up chaos throughout the world. The so-called West, led by the US regime, points ISIS aggression in the direction most convenient to the US and at the same time, the region is groomed for political deconstruction. In the case being examined, ISIS is only a key to start the US-preplanned process. The large-scale net of western NPO's was created in Georgia and Armenia. A number of western influence moles were planted in the government bodies. Local elites mostly depend on the US, their funds allocated in the West. So, they don't care about grass-roots interests. The situation at hand is part of a deconstruction strategic plan aimed at Eurasia. The current goal is to set up a chaos zone in the Caspian-Caucasian-BlackSea strategic region. ISIS is a kind of bickford fuze to detonate the preloaded blast.
6 July Military Report of Novorossia
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter