The Silence of the CIS: Russia’s Neighbors and the Syria Crisis

29.10.2015 | http://carnegie.ru/commentary/?fa=61785&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRohvKjKZKXonjHpfsX57uQsW6Sg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YQFRMd0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D

The Silence of the CIS: Russia’s Neighbors and the Syria Crisis

Arkady Dubnov

The limited information available from the recent CIS summit in Kazakhstan suggests that Russia’s neighbors—and especially the states bordering the Caspian Sea—did not approve of Moscow’s military strikes in Syria. A month after Russia began its intervention in Syria, other post-Soviet leaders are conspicuous mainly by their silence on the military operation there.
The Commonwealth of Independent States summit that took place in Kazakhstan earlier this month went by without a single expression of public support for President Vladimir Putin. The only person who spoke out in favor, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev, did so only during a post-summit interview to a Russian television channel.
The silence reflects the fact that the ruling elites of the other post-Soviet states are less than thrilled by Russia’s recent foreign policy actions. They see Russia’s behavior in Ukraine as a threat to their sovereignty and territorial integrity. The most that the Kremlin can count on from them is a recognition of the reality that Crimea is now de facto part of Russian territory.http://carnegie.ru/commentary/?fa=61785&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRohvKjKZKXonjHpfsX57uQsW6Sg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YQFRMd0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D