Did Russia weaken its influence by empowering Azerbaijan and pan-Turkism to "punish" Armenia?

I don't think it was coincidental that on the same day Azerbaijan launched its final assault on Nagorno-Karabakh, dictator Ilham Aliyev ordered the arrest of the coordinators of Alexander Dugin's International Eurasian Movement in Azerbaijan. Recalling that Dugin is a geopolitical and philosophical influence in the Kremlin, the arrest of those associated with the Eurasian Movement in Azerbaijan was a symbolic gesture that Russia's vision of Eurasia had served its purpose in the country and now the ideology of pan-Turkism/Turkic supremacy is at the fore.

Undoubtedly, the Eurasian Movement piggybacked with pan-Turkism as a partner against the West, which is why many Eurasionist websites will have Turkish and Urdu translations but not Armenian or Hindi, for example, or why Turkey's occupation of northern Cyprus is described as the "dignity of the Eastern Mediterranean."

I also don't think it is coincidental that at a time when there is a growing debate in the West to weaken the sanctions against Russia or even drop them entirely, Kazakhstan arrives at the party late to impose sanctions just days after Azerbaijan recaptures Nagorno-Karabakh and thus opens the way further for an unimpeded Turkic Corridor.

This time, not symbolic like Azerbaijan, but overtly, Kazakhstan is showing that it too is breaking away from being in Russia's sphere of influence by imposing sanctions.

Even if the Turkic Corridor bypasses Armenia's Syunik and goes via Iran, as Erdogan suggested, it will still pass through the heartland of Iran's Azeri minority, which is actually more numerous than Azerbaijan's population. And this corridor is only possible because of Azerbaijan's capture of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Either way, it appears now that with Nagorno-Karabakh back in Azerbaijani control, the Turkic World is beginning to feel more confident in pushing back against Russia. Surely, not even Moscow believes Azerbaijani "accidentally" killed Russian troops in 2020 and Russian peacekeepers in 2023.

There will likely be growing pushback against Russia's influence in the Turkic World as they seek to shape Central Asia and the Caucasus in its vision and not in Russia's. And Russia partly enabled this as it sought to "punish" Armenia, and even as recently as yesterday, unveiled "threats" against Armenia for Pashinyan, turning the country towards the West.

I said it before, and I still believe it is true, especially after Kazakhstan's decision today to impose sanctions, that a liberal and Western-orientated Armenia is a far more minor threat to Russian interests and influence than empowered pan-Turkism.

READ MORE: The USA and Russia want the "Zangezur corridor" but there can only be one "winner" while Armenians continue to suffer.