In April 2024, the PSCR program’s materials covered the conflictual dynamics in and around Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Estonia.
PSCRP
If the US and the EU require other countries to halt their ties with Russia while these ties have nothing to do with security issues, it would be logical to expect a more coherent approach from the West: it should set the same conditions for Armenia if the Caucasian nation wants to pivot to the West.
Morocco, like many other African countries, maintained neutrality regarding arms supplies to Ukraine. The kingdom became the first African state to provide military aid to Kyiv. Once the shipment of all purchased armoured vehicles is completed, Morocco will rank second after Poland in supplying combat tanks since the start of the conflict.
The events that occurred on 26 March 2024, in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, might predetermine the political development of the entire country for months and even years to come. 41 city council deputies out of 79 voted no confidence in the city mayor Mihhail Kõlvart. The required majority is 40, so Kõlvart, who also chairs the Center Party, lost his seat.
Technically, by agreeing to return to the demarcation of the borders according to the Alma-Ata Declarations, the Armenian side validates the Azerbaijani thesis of the “just war”. The demarcation agreement will lead to the departure of the Russian border guards from the Armenian side – they were stationed there by request of Yerevan because it was afraid of military escalation.
In an attempt to change the vector of the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation, President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree “On the territories of the Russian Federation historically inhabited by Ukrainians” and submitted it to the National Security and Defense Council. The Ukrainian leadership concludes that to end the war, it is necessary to destroy the Russian Federation as an empire seeking expansion and revenge, using a combination of military and propaganda means.
Armenia, like other post-Soviet countries, particularly in the southern region, traditionally pursues a multi-vector foreign policy. The aim of such a policy is to utilize different options to maximize foreign assistance and support. This often involves addressing unconventional tasks to balance conflicting foreign policy vectors. Armenia faces a similar task of balancing in the new configuration.
Since the onset of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war in February 2022, Russian authorities and propagandists have been actively exploiting the great-power chauvinistic sentiments of ethnic Russians and Russified representatives of national minorities. “Russian national idea” has acquired an archaic appearance reminiscent of the doctrine of “official nationality”
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has given Kazakhstan a new impetus in terms of diversification. Kazakhstan’s role as a key country in the Middle Corridor project is huge. The volume of freight traffic along this route doubled in 2022 and increased by another 65% in 2023 to 2.7 million tonnes of freight.
In March 2024, the PSCRP program of the BESA Center covered in its materials the regional developments in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, as well as particular problems related to Ukraine and Russia.