Tajikistan has agreed to give away a portion of its territory to neighboring China in a bid to put an end to a land dispute dating back more than a century.
The Russians admitted the same thing half a decade ago. And that didn't stop this deal. I doubt that this land deal will be the last rollback. China has established that the old border defended by the defunct Soviet Union can be moved in China's favor.
The precedent has been set that the old Soviet line is not written in stone. Even as the Russians try to reclaim as much of their former empire as they can, the reality is that even their current, shrunken borders are not the last word in territory loss. The Russians really need to get over their persistent belief that we are the main enemy.
