While Russia and China were asleep, Washington purchased the Armenian and Azerbaijan governments and control of the Zangezur Corridor.

The corridor runs along the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan with Iran. According to a confidential memorandum obtained by a European newspaper, the “Memorandum of Understanding on the Creation of the ‘Trump Bridge’ Transport Corridor,”  Washington has gained control of this sensitive part of the word for 99 years. See this.

RT reports that such an agreement would follow logically from the US-Armenian Strategic Partnership Charter. American contractors and advisors are already on the ground. It appears that the corridor will be militarized.

If reports are true, Russian and Chinese intelligence or political will totally failed yet again. Washington has struck a deadly three-pronged attack against Russia, China and Iran. Iran is now encircled from the north. The Zangezur Corridor, formerly an intended part of China’s Belt and Road or New Silk Road, is in Washington’s hands. Another part of former provinces of the Soviet Union has fallen under Washington’s influence. Stalin and Mao would never have allowed such a development.

The Armenian president, Nikol Pashinyan, perhaps encouraged by a bag full of dollars, has aligned with Washington and has implemented policies that seem designed to undermine the national identity of Armenia. See this.

It wasn’t that long ago that Putin had to send Russian troops to Kazakhstan to prevent a Washington-inspired Color Revolution and that Georgia’s anti-Russian government was refusing to abide by the election and release its hold on power. Kazakhstan borders China’s majority-Muslim province of Xinjiang, where Washington is actively stirring up the province.

It is clear enough that Washington is active in Central Asia stirring up trouble that it hopes will destabilize the Russian and Chinese governments and has completed the encirclement of Iran. As this development has been in the works for some time, serious questions are raised about the competence of the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian governments.

Putting these developments in wider perspective, it is clear that Washington has no intention of entering into a mutual security agreement with Putin. But apparently Putin is unable to see reality. He sees only hopes. It was a strategic blunder for Putin to allow the conflict with Ukraine to continue for so long while Washington and NATO surrounded him with trouble spots. Putin’s inability to act forcefully has brought very aggressive talk against Russia by a variety of European government ministers and generals who say they will be ready for war with Russia in 18 months. Trump has now given Putin an ultimatum to accept within 12 days a Ukrainian peace agreement that no one knows what is. No such agreement exists, and Zelensky has said he won’t sign regardless.

It was a serious mistake for Putin to have encouraged such hostility toward Russia by permitting a conflict over a few kilometers in Donbas to go on indefinitely. To be treated with respect, Russia needed to show decisive military prowess. Putin failed this test.

On the Western front, successful Ukrainian drone attacks have left 150,000 Russians in the Rostov region without power. US General Christopher Donahue, Commander of US Army Europe and Africa, has announced a NATO plan to capture Russian Kaliningrad in record short time. See this.

Will Putin still be talking about peace negotiations when Kaliningrad falls?

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Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. Visit his blog here.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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