Foreign Digest: Armenia, Georgia, Slovakia, and Moldova

Armenia: Armenia has joined the International Criminal Court. The move is a blow to erstwhile ally, the Russian Federation, as the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for war crimes committed as part of Russian aggression against Ukraine for Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, the ex-Soviet intelligence officer who has been trying to restore the Soviet Union. Membership in the ICC obligates arrest of those for whom a warrant has been issued, which thus precludes Putin from visiting Armenia. Russia failed to protect ethnic Armenians in the formerly self-governing territory of Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan, despite its role as a peacekeeper since a 2020 war between the two former Soviet Republics in the Caucasus, their second since independence in 1991. The vast majority of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh have already fled their ancestral homeland to Armenia. Georgia: Georgia’s President has expressed concern over a Russian plan for a naval base on Georgian soil in a breakaway territory on the Black Sea recognized by the Russia Federation as independent. Russia invaded two separatist territories in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia in 2008 and set up puppet governments it recognized as independent. Only a handful of authoritarian States around the world have also recognized the territories’ independence. Russian forces, which Russia had pledged to withdraw, repeatedly further encroached on Georgian territory. Slovakia: Slovakia accuses Russia of interference in its election last week, in which a pro-Russian leftist party won the most votes in the parliamentary elections. As the party fell short of even a quarter of the vote, a coalition government would certainly be necessary, although the leader of the winning party, a former Prine Minister, has been given a mandate by the President to try to form a government. Slovakia, an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has been providing military aid to Ukraine against Russian aggression, which the leftist party opposes. Under Putin, who aspires to re-unite the Soviet Union, Russia interferes in elections not only in former Soviet Republics and satellites, but also in Western States and the United States with propaganda, disinformation and cyberattacks. It had even attempted a violent coup in Montenegro in 2016. Moldova: The President of Moldova last week accused Kremlin-associated Russian mercenaries of plotting a violent coup d’etat in the former Soviet Republic by provoking violent protests and attacks against the Moldovan government. Thousands of Russian Federation troops are in a breakaway part of Moldova where there is a Russian-speaking ethnic minority on the border with Ukraine, against Moldova’s intent. Communist and Socialist parties in Moldova support Russia. Moldova aspires to membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union.