Putin won’t stop at Ukraine, says Belkovsky

After expanding his authority in the Ukrainian territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin will turn his attention to Nagorno-Karabakh and Latvia, Russian political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky said in an interview on radio Freedom, reports Unian.

"I believe that after Ukraine, he will have to recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh. Thanks to this, he will receive support from the U.S., Canadian and French Armenian diasporas, which is important to him in terms of foreign policy," Belkovsky said.

"He also needs to achieve that pro-Russia forces come to power in Latvia, because he needs to gain control of the Baltics. He cannot do that in Estonia and Lithuania, but he can in Latvia," believes Belkovsky.

"I think that in the territory of the NATO countries, Putin will not act the way he did in Ukraine," he added.

During Soviet times, Nagorno-Karabakh was part of Azerbaijan Republic of the Soviet Union, but since the beginning of the 1990s, it is a "de facto" Armenian republic. It is closely related to Armenia, but officially it still is considered part of Azerbaijan. Since the end of World War I, this region inhabited by Armenians has been a reason for disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.