Category: Kazakhstan

China faces an increase in extremist threats in central Asia, US panel is told

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

China faces an increase in extremist threats in central Asia, US panel is told

Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that the Islamic State Khorasan (Isis-K) had identified the perpetrator of the suicide bomb attack on worshippers in a mosque in the Afghan city of Kunduz in October as a Uygur.

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US policymakers are paying more attention to the growth of China’s geopolitical influence through programmes like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – which includes the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – as Washington’s relationship with Beijing has frayed on multiple fronts.

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“It used to be the Uygur militants that tended to be responsible for attacks on Chinese diplomats or Chinese businessmen in Kyrgyzstan,” Pantucci added. “Increasingly we see Kyrgyz in general being quite angry towards the Chinese … and we can see similar narratives in Kazakhstan.”

Still, anger against Chinese does not mean that Americans are welcome, Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, founding director at the University of Pittsburgh’s Centre for Governance and Markets, said.

“The US lost so much credibility because of the way it left Afghanistan,” she said. “Regardless of how you may feel about the intervention, regardless of how you may feel about the withdrawal of decision to withdraw the way the US left, I think it left a very bitter taste in the mouth of many people in the region.”

After all that work, instigating terrorists, they’re still not welcome back! Wonder why?! 🙄

Myanmar Violence: a Slow Burn US Proxy War

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The ongoing violence in Myanmar may have faded into the background of global media coverage as much more intense conflict shapes up within and along Ukraine’s borders in Eastern Europe and as Washington raises the prospect of direct conflict with China in Asia. However, Myanmar’s conflict serves as a point of destabilization which may impact the wider stability of Southeast Asia and thus undermine China in a more indirect but still significant manner.

Myanmar Violence: a Slow Burn US Proxy War

Recent Terrorist Attacks In Transnistria Hint At The Opening Of Another Anti-Russian Front

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Recent Terrorist Attacks In Transnistria Hint At The Opening Of Another Anti-Russian Front

And finally, the last reason why the US-led West is likely behind the latest spree of terrorist attacks in Transnistria is because they might be trying to provoke Russia into beefing up its presence there so that it can then be spun as it “invading another independent country”. That would fuel the unprecedentedly intense anti-Russian infowar and perhaps also create the “publicly plausible” pretext for accelerating Moldova’s potential NATO membership along the lines of the Finnish-Swedish model (including de facto protection prior to its formal admission) and/or its (re-)unification with neighboring Romania that could lead to the same military-strategic outcome.

Related:

Are the attacks on Transnistria aimed at Russia?

If Transnistria is attacked, no matter from which side, Russia will have to respond, because, first of all, the Operational Group of Russian Forces in Transnistria and Russian peacekeepers will be involved in the armed clash.

Transnistria explosions: Attackers target radio towers

According to law enforcers, the explosions disabled two powerful antennas that broadcast Russian radio stations to the residents of the republic. The towers were built in the 1960s.

Washington pursues RAND’s plan in Kazakhstan, then in Transnistria

RAND Corporation: Overextending and Unbalancing Russia

Flip Transnistria and expel the Russian troops from the region would be a blow to Russian prestige, but it would also save Moscow money and quite possibly impose additional costs on the United States and its allies.