Russia Faces Historic Strategic Defeat In The Caucasus! - RFU News

Today, the biggest news comes from the South Caucasus.

After years of deadlock, Turkey has succeeded in launching a route that bypasses both Russia and Iran, breaking Moscow’s grip over the South Caucasus. Framed by Turkish President Erdogan as a geostrategic revolution, the project deals a direct blow to Russia’s decades-long dominance in the region and marks a clear strategic defeat for Moscow.

Turkey has launched its most ambitious infrastructure project since the fall of the Soviet Union: a land corridor bypassing both Russian and Iranian territory by cutting through Armenia’s Syunik region. Known as the Zangezur Corridor, this project will link Turkey to Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea, and Central Asia, creating a direct land bridge from Eurasia to Europe under Turkish control. This corridor is also compatible with the EU’s Traceca route via Georgia, undermining the Russian connection even more.

For decades, Russia held a de facto monopoly on east-west trade across the South Caucasus, and that monopoly is now collapsing. The corridor effectively eliminates Moscow’s role as gatekeeper between Asia and Europe. Erdogan has placed it at the core of the Middle Corridor, a Turkic-led alternative to Russia’s North-South Corridor. But it also signals the collapse of Russia’s post-Soviet dominance in the region, where it once acted as the main broker of ceasefires, gatekeeper of trade routes, and enforcer of regional rules. Moscow no longer controls transit or diplomacy in the South Caucasus, and its traditional areas of influence are now sidelined. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey are pushing forward with joint initiatives entirely outside of Russia’s orbit. For the first time since the Soviet collapse, Russia finds itself excluded from the region’s strategic architecture.

The shift is even more dramatic when considering the actors involved, because Armenia and Azerbaijan were at war just years ago, and now have chosen to build peace with each other rather than rely on Russia. Their most recent meeting, where they advanced the corridor and signed a peace agreement, was held in Abu Dhabi, not Moscow; that choice alone illustrates how far Russia’s influence has fallen. Armenia, once a deeply pro-Russian state, now sees no advantage in depending on a patron that allowed Azerbaijan to reclaim disputed territory with no interference. Russia’s efforts to build an alternative through the North-South Corridor, alongside Iran and India, are faltering. That route is slower, riskier, and less aligned with global trade networks. By contrast, the Zangezur Corridor aligns seamlessly with NATO-linked infrastructure and European markets. What was supposed to be a multipolar world with Moscow as its center is shifting towards a Turkey-Azerbaijan-Central Asia axis that not only sidelines Russia but also orients itself firmly towards NATO, the EU, and global markets.

Crucially, Moscow has no role in enabling the corridor. It did not mediate the peace, as its military presence in Armenia is increasingly symbolic, and it has no financial leverage to block construction. Iran, too, has been entirely sidelined from this process, despite its efforts to position itself as a regional transit hub. For Russia, this is not just a matter of losing control over trade routes, it represents a broader collapse of strategic relevance in a region it once dominated. While critics have raised legitimate concerns about the feasibility of the project, pointing to the mountainous terrain of Syunik, frequent earthquakes, and the absence of key infrastructure, these challenges have not slowed momentum.

Building electrified rail lines and highways here will require tunnels, bridges, and anti-landslide systems, at an estimated cost exceeding 2 billion dollars. Early cargo flows may not justify the investments. But Turkey and Azerbaijan are pursuing the Corridor for its long-term strategic value, not short-term trade margins. Even if the route is underused at first, the symbolic impact is immediate, it breaks Russia’s decades-long logistical monopoly over east-west transit in the region. A new bloc, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and the Central Asian republics, is forming outside of Moscow’s control. The South Caucasus is no longer a Russian sphere. It is realigning economically and diplomatically toward the West.

Overall, the Zangezur corridor is more than an infrastructure project; it is a strategic defeat for Russia. It exposes the limits of Russian power, reveals the fragility of alliances, and marks the end of its dominance in a region it once considered untouchable. For Moscow, this isn’t just about a new railway, it is about losing the last remnants of post-Soviet control in the South Caucasus.