Moscow may be forced to dispatch as many as seven army divisions to Central Asia lest the destabilization of that region by ISIS and its allies spark a massive flood of refugees into Russian cities that would make the current situation in the EU look like child’s play, according to MGIMO expert Andrey Kazantsev.
The director of that foreign policy training institute’s Analytic Center is not the first Russian writer to make that point. Mikhail Khodorenok, the editor of Voenno-Promyshlenny Kuryer, made a similar point in aGazetaarticle at the end of December (gazeta.ru/politics/2015/12/23_a_7987919.shtml).
But Kazantsev’s is the more authoritative voice, and his warnings about just how dire the situation now is in Central Asia and what Moscow must do to counter the emerging threat there undoubtedly reflect the views of many senior defense and security planners in the Russian capital (mgimo.ru/about/news/experts/tsentralnaya-aziya-rost-ugrozy-religioznogo-ekstremizma-i-poiski-putey-borby-s-nim/).(Paul Goble)
Link: http://atimes.com/2016/01/moscow-may-have-to-open-third-front-in-central-asia-to-prevent-refugee-influx-into-russian-cities/
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