Hacker News Reader

Just a few months ago it looked different, there were articles like this

https://globalcomment.com/is-russia-losing-or-tightening-its...

about US looking into getting an airbase and Tokayev trying to play it both sides. That probably won't happen anymore

The Armenians, too, and even Lukashenko tried to play both sides, get cozy with the West. They are probably/definitely not going to do that again.

It's pretty telling that several western leaning nations/political groups in Asia have been defeated by non-Western adversaries.

We've now seen this in Armenia, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now Kazakhstan.

I think the geopolitical message is pretty clear - EU/US will not protect you. Alliances with them cost little, but have little protective value. Russia/Iran/China/Turkey might force you to pay a higher price for their protection, but at the end of the day, they will actually protect you.

Look what happened to Armenia that tried to appease both Russia and the West.

It's more important to have few close allies than appeasing everyone.

Worked out pretty well for India, they still court Russia and the US

India is much larger country than the others mentioned in this thread.

Yes but Russia and India don't share a border

Neither doesn't Russia and Armenia.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com