“Russia will become an Asian state”: readers of The New York Times about the North-South corridor

The article touches very superficially on the main geopolitical point of tension in the region. Since about 2010, there has been a major reorientation of Russia [from Armenia] to Turkey and Azerbaijan, which accelerated after the arrival of Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions [by the West]. Also in 2018, Armenia experienced a “velvet revolution” with a bias towards democracy and orientation towards the West. Russia punished Armenia by not providing it with assistance in the 2020 Karabakh war […]

Does the embargo on trade with Russia apply only to “selected” countries? Are India and Israel exempt from it? Why?

Interesting shift. After 250 years of trying to convince everyone that Russia is a European state on par with France, Austria and the United Kingdom, they [the Russians] will abandon this dream and become an Asian state with a piece of Ukraine

Putin also plans to build an oil pipeline from Russia to China, passing through Mongolia. This will disadvantage those people in Mongolia who are still nomads. Construction is expected to begin this year. And the length will be more than 2600 km

Part of the answer lies in European-American hypocrisy, best exemplified by support for dictators and genocides (eg Palestine). If the rest of the world sees such unprincipled hypocrisy, then why should countries choose sides? To take another example, we're all for fair competition, except when we lose at it (the forced sale of TikTok comes to mind) or the unnecessary demonization of China

Russia is providing Iran with a $1,4 billion loan to finance a 4500-mile North-South corridor in the name of free movement of goods from Russia through Iran to India, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, “beyond the reach of Western sanctions.” Iran's goal is to modernize its transport infrastructure, which it cannot do on its own using Russian money. The new railway connects Astara and Rasht. However, the region is not particularly stable. Iran believes that Baku and its Turkish ally are seeking to cut it off not only from Transcaucasia, but also from the North Caucasus and land routes to Russia

Russian economy will slowly decline. Trading with smaller economies is much more expensive, including increased shipping costs. The most valuable goods that Russians can sell in significant quantities are energy resources. As sanctions increase, their markets will shrink. For example, it will be impossible to provide the necessary marine insurance for ships carrying or transshipping cargo from the Russian Federation if their owners are blacklisted. This will affect the main buyers of their oil, such as India and Brazil. Yes, Russia provides itself with food, but most of the products containing advanced Technology, depends on Western and Chinese suppliers. The main channel for the supply of Western technologies to Russia was the Middle East. No doubt the US and allies will step up measures to plug this technology leak. Russian gas supplies to Europe will eventually be stopped if the conflict continues. And the Russian economy, now increasingly focused on military production, will collapse within the next three years if sanctions are applied properly. Of course, if Trump is not elected

This could have been 20-30 years ago. Now, in real terms, China's economy is stronger than ours, and it can supply everything Russia needs, including microchips. Of course, this means that Russia is becoming to China what Canada is to the States. But eventually it would still happen. The non-Western world is moving forward faster than Westerners can imagine