A lot of people have written about this, but I want to do a summary of how all of the largest conflicts in the world today have been supplied by Russia in order to destabilize the world.
We all know about Russia’s digital warfare against NATO and non-NATO democracies. This has been designed to increase support for politicians like Donald Trump and increase support for policies like Brexit. Russia has dreamed of conquering all of Europe for centuries, as we can most clearly see in its invasions in Europe from 1945 to 1949. This is a theme of my blog, and is very well documented.
Russia’s very obviously the aggressor in their invasion of Ukraine. Anyone with any knowledge of the conflict knows this.
What I’m interested in today is how Russia is involved in various wars around the world by fomenting instability and undermining fragile states for its ends.
There are 6 wars in the world today, with over 10,000 fatalities per year in either of the last two years:
- Russian Invasion of Ukraine
- Israel-Palestinian conflict
- Islamist insurgency in the Maghreb/Sahel
- Sudanese civil war
- Burma Civil Waar
- Ethiopian civil war
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine is the most black and white. Russia is obviously the aggressor.
Their relationship with Israel is odd, to say the least. Israel refuses to sanction Russia, while Russia and Iran have a close alliance that has supported both Hamas and Hezbollah. The relationship between Hamas and Israel is complicated, to say the least. Not outright hostile since they will occasionally enter discussions for mutual political benefit, but also go to war for mutual political benefit when the time is right. I’ve written about this before. Russia has deep relationships with all sides of this conflict, which takes a lot of time to unravel. It is very complicated.
As a cursory overview of the Islamist insurgency in the Maghreb and the Sahel, you will not find Russia listed as an aggressor state or with clear sides taken. But as you read through the article, you will find that Russia appears throughout the article. Russia has actively sought to undermine governments in Africa through its proxy, the Wagner Group (before its dissolution), and more directly since the dissolution of the Wagner Group. Getting clear data on exactly how Russia is involved in this conflict, which sides they take, and other factors takes a lot of time, and I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but the article makes it clear they are involved. The M62 movement in Niger is the most obvious proxy of Russia in the region, but it started only in 2022, and I know Russia has been involved in the region longer than that. There have been allegations of Russia backing al Qaeda for decades by people at different institutions. There are a lot of accusations from reputable sources about Russia supporting terrorism, so it is reasonable to assume that Russia supports terrorism in Mali and Niger due to their relationship with France.
The Wagner Group backs the Government of Peace and Unity in the Sudanese Civil War. We have a weird situation here where Iran and Ukraine are supporting the Sudanese government against Russian-backed rebels. That is the reality of all of Russia’s “alliances”.
Russia and China are the major arms suppliers to the military junta in Burma.
Russia is an arms supplier to Ethiopia, backing the government, which consistently ranks as one of the most corrupt and despotic on Earth.
Russia actively funded the Taliban during the time of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021.
Russia has its fingers in every major conflict in the world. The weakening of Russia due to its losing the War in Ukraine has already led to a collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. As Russia continues to weaken, its ability to sponsor international terrorism and authoritarian governments in all of these other countries will be reduced, making the world a more peaceful place.
Even if you do not care about Ukraine, even though I believe you should. Even if you are anti-NATO and hate the European Union. If you care about Africa, you should oppose Russia. If you care about peace and stability in the Middle East, you should oppose Russia. If you care about Southeast Asia, you should oppose Russia.
Russia is at fault in every major conflict in the world today. It is a major sponsor of terrorism around the world. Russia is nothing more than a mafia state, fomenting distrust and authoritarian mindsets in democracies around the world through its powerful PR machine. Russia’s PR machine is all over social media, and their international broadcaster is RT.
I am suspicious that the discussion about pivoting to Asia is part of Russia’s strategy as well, to weaken China so they can keep hold of Vladivostok, their only significant port east of Sochi. Russia has a major reason to distract China from their territorial claims from the land Russia stole and convince China to sabre rattle with their trading partners around the world.
The fall of the Russian government will be good for the entire world. This is why every democracy should fund Ukraine as much as possible to take out the most dangerous country in the world.