See why Putin is losing his grip on former Soviet republics

Russia’s war in Ukraine is being felt across the former Soviet Union, where many countries are reacting in horror to the Kremlin’s destructive invasion. CNN’s Ivan Watson reports from Almaty, Kazakhstan. #CNN #News

69 comments

  1. Bridges are always deemed as valid military targets especially when they are key logistical routes, now i would love to see how russia claims that bridges are just civilian infrastructure but schools, apartment buildings etc are valid military targets…

    1. @Baummann when the pentagon was attacked in 2001, you claimed that it was terrorist act. But a bridge full of civilians you cheered. Hypocrisy

    2. @BillyTheKid People have been talking about the Kerch bridge incident for months? You are not making much sense.

    1. Turns out immediate fear of death and conscription is stronger than your more long term, state-sponsored fear. Who woulda thunk?

  2. Fear only goes so far, and once a bully loses the ability to make others fear them they lose everything. Now the world sees how weak Putin is and all the excesses and illegal actions Russia did under Putin will be pushed back against by those who tire of a bully telling them what to do.

    1. Showing weakness could be an act of defection. Victor Belenko case in showing the limitations of tussian Mig- 25 way back 1976.

    2. It’s not baffling, it’s logical. Putin has nuclear weapons and said he will use them if necessary. Ukraine doesn’t have such weapons. It would only be the US who could /would respond to Putin’s use of nukes. That would result in further use by Putin and further escalation could occur.. The thought is horrendous.

    1. @skytron22 ukraine has been given long range rockets, himars rocket launch system, howitzers, anti tank weapons, T- 72M1, bayraktar TB2 DRONE, and all the critical information by using satellites

    1. “Video games could trigger heart attacks in children” – experts say. But remember ” Safe and Effective” ?

    2. @BigKDog Funny but I don’t recall the U.S. invading a country to occupy and claim. Perhaps
      you can help.

  3. I think the defence agreements with the old republics were pragmatic decisions by them based on the idea of Soviet might. Now that the world sees the true state of Russias power, you’ll see these start to disappear.

  4. Not just former Soviet republics. Even Russia’s influence in so-called “allies” outside the USSR zone is also waning. Indians seem addicted to Russia, but very few Indian companies invested in Russia – the market was taken by China. In Vietnam, very few Vietnamese learn Russian and most of them only prefer working with Japanese, German, Taiwanese and Korean companies. Russia also lost influence in Israel as well as Latin America, save for Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

    1. @weirdshibainu well fine i like if you believe that then, keeps you on your toes cause im not american and am rooting for you

  5. It’s incredibly ironic that Russia lashes out at western European countries and the U.S. for being colonial, when “Russia” really is Moscow, surrounded by a huge collection of adjacent provinces that it has colonized and gets wealthy from draining of their natural resources. They do this by forcing the resource extraction businesses to keep their headquarters in Moscow, then taxing the corporations at their Moscow headquarters. The Russian language even uses a term for Moscow analogous to it being a different country. Everyone there knows it. Instead of trying to add to his colonies, Putin should have focused on maintaining what he had. Because in his overreach, he now risks regional breakaways, and the fracturing of Moscow’s “greater Russia”.

    1. @9400lilly There are NATO missiles in Poland. If Ukraine were to join NATO they would be on the Russian border. Insisting that Russia tolerate what we would not pretty much guarantees war.

  6. Bravo to the people of Ukraine for their resilience and persistence in battling against the war in the past eight months. Putin has clearly been a total failure and let’s just declare Russia as a failed state and list it as the same level as North Korea.

  7. The same in Kazakhstan. Very few Kazakhs accept Russian imperialist ideology. And to the Indian YouTubers, while Indians are crying about the Bengal famine, Kazakhstan lost 1/3 of its people due to a Russia-instigated famine, so stop thinking if Russia is a good guy, my fellow Asian neighbours.

    1. @baoh tiem Bach. No bot here. I’m a lifelong Portland Oregon resident . I love my country and I love this world . This inspires my posts. You?

    2. @baoh tiem Bach. Does the eye of Sauron forbid you to consider Putins latest major speech ? Careful. Don’t get unpersoned

    3. @Rajesh Kanungo Britain never claimed to be the leader of the free world, certainly not 100 years ago.

      You’re getting confused with the USA

    4. @Shaun McKenzie however much I’d like to disagree with you, I think you are right. To Churchill, freedom meant freedom for the British Empire to reign for ever. The closest he came to the universal concept was,
      “If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. “
      I stand corrected.

  8. The same observed by me. I am Polish, but has a part Russian in my blood thanked to my mother’s side (a Chuvash). She and most of her family members left Russia because Russia only knows how to terrorise, bully and control. I speak Russian at some point, but I never consider myself belong to Russia. And Putin’s savagery only confirms my Polish identity.

    1. Thanks to Dima. Very interesting updates. Kharkov has got 1.5 million people – it will take a lot for Russia to take that city. The city is difficult to encircle due to the traffic connections. And though Kharkov is a center for Ukrainian regrouping and supplies, it is not placed directly on the logistical lines feeding Ukraine in Donbas across Dnepr river, such as Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia cities. Even after the partial mobilization, Russia will have too few forces in Ukraine – especially for long frontlines. Russian forces in Chernihiv and Sumy will lengthen Russia’s total frontline. From these two regions, Russia could potentially press Kiev city, but Kiev will be very hard to take, and the Chernihiv and Sumy regions do not have any logistical importance for vital NATO supplies into Ukraine like Volyn, Lviv, and other regions in western Ukraine have. A Russian attack on Kharkov region could have some advantages. (1) Politically, taking Kharkov it would be a vindication for Russia and Russian speakers in Kharkov region after Russia so quickly had to give-up all territory in Kharkiv region. (2) It would cut-off and potentially encircle some of Ukraine’s forces (perhaps 70,000) on the frontline to LPR. (3) Also important politically, this would safeguard the loyal Russian speakers who voted for Russia in the LPR. (4) An attack on Kharkov would also have very favorable logistics for Russia. (5) Attacking Kharkov will force Ukraine to divert a lot of forces away from existing frontlines. And (6) after taking Kharkov region, Russia could make a big pincer southwards to cut-off Slavyansk-Kramatorsk and the rest of Ukraine’s positions in Donetsk region. But all this won’t reduce Ukraine’s supplies from NATO via Poland, which are a big (and increasing) problem for Russia. Is this the best path forward for Russia? Russia will anyway need an attack into the eastern part of Kharkov region due to reasons (1), (2), and (3) – so perhaps why not take all of Kharkov region. But taking Kharkov region will not be such a deadly blow to the Kiev régime like the conquest of Nikolaev, Odessa, and Kirovohrad regions would be.

  9. Like Georgia, which had 20% of it’s country stolen by Putin, there are plenty of regions that have massive scores to settle. It would seem that with Putin’s forces already badly stretched that there has never been a better time to get payback.

    1. Thaats devoutly to be wished. Many rebellions in the border regions would crack open Russia like a nut eaten by a squirrel.

    2. Russia has stolen parts of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Georgia, Japan and probably a few more countries. The Soviet Union also stole parts of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania, but those territories belong to Belarus and Ukraine now. I would love to see payback. They also stole Åland from my country in 1809, but that belongs to Finland since its independence in 1917.

    3. @Francis Dec Settling old or very old grievances is dangerous in international relations, like generations-long vendettas among families. Sometimes its best to just be grateful for peace.
      And, because individual rights is the only rational baase of politics, old pre-individual rights territorial disputes have no objectivity.
      Virtually no wars in history involved individual rights. Just thugs murdering each other , w/no moral justification on either side. Better to protect individual rights now than many deaths in wars of tradition and vengeance.

    4. I thought the same … but I don’t see Ukraine stopping pushing Russia back to the border, so they’re not at their weakest yet

  10. Russia has long wished to revive the former Soviet republics, which is why they oppose NATO’s expansion into this area. If anything, we should be grateful to the Americans for making a correct future forecast and creating a security alliance that has kept Russia from regaining control of these nations.

  11. I’m a Kiwi-American who’s lived in Kyrgyzstan for 12 years. And I can tell you right away that the majority of the Kyrgyz people are very much against Putin and the war, especially among the younger generation. There is a very strong sense of freedom and liberty here. There has been a successful revolution 3 times in the nation’s history as a result of corrupt dictators and elections. It is the only country in Central Asia that is a legitimate democracy, with a newly elected president every 6 years with no re-elections. And no media censorship either!

    I bet even the government is privately against Putin and the war, but can’t publicly denounce it because it would mean major economic repercussions from Russia.

    As for the conflict in the Batken Oblast between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan? It’s mostly a local ethnic conflict near the border that has escalated, and has now stopped.

    My point with this rant? I just want to show that the Kyrgyz people are freedom loving, incredible people. And that the former Soviet republics have nothing to do with this war.

    Except for Lukashenko. He’s a damn tool and a pathetic one at that lol

    1. God Bless you for being Kiwi!! I lived in NSW for over five years and had a layover in your lovely country once.
      About your insight into the Kyrgyz people wanting western-style freedom and a free media, I love hearing that democracy and freedoms can sprout anywhere.
      I hope that the ex-Soviet countries all continue to back Ukraine and are critical of Putin-style governments. As for Lukashenko, yes, he’s a fat puppet and I’d also love to hear that his army revolted.

  12. Any country with Soviet-type weapons and training should really re-evaluate military relationship with Russia. This war is the Western tech beating the Russian/Soviet tech.

  13. I just spent 2 weeks in 3 former Soviet republics of Estonia Latvia and Lithuania. Even though 30-40% of Estonia and Latvia population is ethic Russians , there is no support shown for Russia. But everywhere you look you see support for Ukraine

    1. Really.
      That’s fantastic!
      Thank you 💐
      There’s actually a lot of really encouraging and intelligent comments on this video!

    2. I went to Estonia about 15/20 years ago and it looked so much better for not being under Russia’s boot. Very happy and forward looking country.

    3. Fyi, these three countries are the leaders in eu at political level pledging support for Ukraine. They also crowdfunded weapons

  14. It’s important to bear in mind that, even though Russia is trying to say that sanctions aren’t bothering them, the fact that potential allies of Russia are scared to go down the sanction-path and so are abstaining from coming to Russia’s aid means that sanctions are definitely working.

  15. “Anyone who doesn’t miss the Soviet Union is heartless. Anyone who wants it back is brainless.” – Vladimir Putin.

    Should’ve taken his own advice.

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