US Knows That If Russia Disintegrates, China Will Advance To Urals – OpEd

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At the end of Soviet times, a wonderfully instructive political cartoon appeared in an American newspaper. It showed Mikhail Gorbachev holding a gun to his head and saying to the US, “give me your money or your friend gets it,” a kind of blackmail which it appears some Russians are prepared to engage in once again.

Given that the US now views China as the main enemy, Russian military commentator Konstantin Sivkov says, it needs to ensure that Russia remains not too strong but at least whole   because “if Russia will be destroyed, China will advance to the Urals and no one will be able to stop it” (newizv.ru/article/general/16-08-2021/konstantin-sivkov-ssha-ponimayut-esli-rossiya-razrushitsya-kitaytsy-doydut-do-urala).

Because of that danger, the US must support Russian efforts to keep itself strong enough not to allow that to happen even if Washington doesn’t always approve of what Moscow does. In short, he is repeating the argument of the cartoon, do what we want as far as we are concerned or we will be destroyed – and you will suffer.

Paul Goble

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at [email protected] .

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