Is Russia back in the great game?

[Toramana]

"Third, the Russian entry will cast shadows on the Afghan ethnic mosaic. It has been with non-Pashtun nationalities - especially Tajiks and Uzbeks - that Moscow got deeply involved over the years. Moscow had little to do with the Hazaras and was mostly on uneasy terms with the Pashtuns (despite keeping subsoil contacts with the Taliban). The officer corps of Afghan armed forces is predominantly Tajik and the Pashtuns have misgivings that Moscow is once again developing the sinews of its erstwhile proxies.

More so, as the Russian military personnel will be coming in at a time when non-Pashtun groups have begun secretly arming themselves fearing a Taliban takeover in Kabul....."


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/LJ28Ag01.html

[Toramana]

Future historians may well agree that the 21st century Silk Road first opened for business on December 14, 2009. That was the day a crucial stretch of pipeline officially went into operation, linking the fabulously energy-rich state of Turkmenistan (via Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) to Xinjiang province in China's far west. Hyperbole did not deter the spectacularly named Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan's president, from bragging: "This [COLOR=green !important][COLOR=green !important]project[/COLOR][/COLOR] has not only commercial or [COLOR=green !important][COLOR=green !important]economic[/COLOR][/COLOR] value. It is...

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/LJ14Ag01.html

[Toramana]

"Russia doesn't want to be involved in Afghanistan," Alain Deletroz, the European vice president of the International Crisis Group think-tank, told Deutsche Welle. "It had its time there and it has enough of it. But it doesn't want to see NATO losing and the Taliban back, with their potential to create troubles in the rest of Central Asia and even in the North Caucasus."

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6194059,00.html