Uh oh:
The leaders of ex-Soviet grouping the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) met at the Burabai resort near the Kazakh capital, Astana.
They agreed on the creation of what is described in a summit document as a "grouping of border (forces) and other institutions from CIS member states designed to resolve crisis situations on the external borders".
Are these leaders insane? They really want to contemplate the introduction of Russian troops?
Everyone knows we leave--even when we shouldn't. Even modern Germans leave without incident if you ask.
Shouldn't people have learned that prying Russians out of your country--especially when the Russians still think of you as provinces that are only temporarily not under their control--is costly?
Tajikistan, which hit the lottery by getting the Russians out in 2005 without a long war, should not push their luck. Russia under Putin in 2015 is way different than Russia of 2005. See Georgia, Crimea, and the Donbas.
Good grief, Other ex-Soviet countries have learned that just letting Russian energy supplies into their territory is dangerous:
Poland on Thursday signed a landmark deal to build the first EU gas pipeline to the isolated Baltic countries, reducing their uneasy reliance on Russian supplies. ...
"You have ended the energy isolation of the Baltics. You have ended their long-lasting dependence on a single supplier," [European Commission President] Juncker said.
Yeah. Ukraine has learned, too, but can't do much about it yet. And they've learned about the difficulty of removing Russian troops, too.
