The Latest Russian Support of Militant Islamism

I have posted before how the Russian Federation, under ex-Soviet intelligence officer Vladimir Putin, has supported Islamism in a number of ways, despite its appeal to far-right Westerners as some kind of a bulwark against terrorism and Muslims generally. I noted Putin’s appointment of a tyrannical Islamist Governor of Chechnya and his support for the terrorist-sponsoring tyrannical Syrian regime that is backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the worst state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and how Russia works with the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite organization, Hezbollah. And observers have noted the high proportion of foreign jihadist fighters in Syria were from Russia. The latest example of Russian support for militant Muslims is in the Southern Caucasus. Russia had mediated an end to the second war between the former Soviet Republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020 and provided peacekeepers after the former regained land from the latter and gained control of the corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, the separatist ethnic Christian Armenian region within mostly Muslim Azerbaijan. The Russian peacekeepers allowed Azerbaijan to cut off the corridor linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia since last year, depriving the residents of food and supplies. They were unable to stop the Azerbaijani offensive last week that forced the separatists to surrender. Although supplies are finally reaching the ethnic Armenian region and the Azerbaijani Government promises to respect the religious and political liberty of the Armenians, the residents are skeptical of the Azerbaijani Government, as Azerbaijan is an unfree State. A mass exodus of the 120,000 residents of Nagorno-Karabakh is beginning. Armenia, which is a member of a defensive pact with Russia, is increasingly turning to the West as a more reliable protector of its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity versus a Russian tyrant who has his own interest in supporting Azerbaijan and is violating the independence, sovereignty and territory of another former Soviet Republic with its aggression against Ukraine.