It would be nice to say that Putin is just a new Stalin waiting to expand back into the old Soviet shoes, but this denies exactly how much the US has invested in Central Asia and the South Caucasus over the last 10 years. It is US involvement (particularly in the natural gas industry) that has sparked the nationalist/jingoistic sentiment of Putin’s keepers. If they can’t make money off mineral rights in their own sphere, you better believe the Russian oligarchs will fight to control the flow of that energy from their sphere. There is far to little empathy for Putin’s actions. What would you do if a Starbucks opened up further down the same private drive you own a coffeshop on? You’d blockade the road back to it if you knew you could get away with it.
