WHILE AMERICA FOCUSES ON THE MIDDLE EAST, IS RUSSIA QUIETLY EXPANDING ITS GLOBAL INFLUENCE?
📌 OPENING – THE DISTRACTION TRAP The United States has a well-documented tendency to focus intensely on one crisis at a time. In the 2000s, it was Afghanistan and Iraq. In the 2010s, it was the rise of ISIS and the Syrian civil war. In the 2020s, it has been the war in Gaza, the Red Sea crisis, and the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel. Each of these crises has consumed enormous amounts of American diplomatic energy, military resources, and media attention. Each has been real, urgent, and deserving of attention. But there is a pattern that the Kremlin has noticed and exploited: wherever America looks, it stops looking elsewhere. While the US has been laser-focused on the Middle East since October 2023, Russia has been quietly expanding its influence not only within the region (as we have documented in previous articles) but also across Africa, Central Asia, the Arctic, and even Latin America. This is the third article in Cakranegara News' 15-part series #RUSSIANFOOTPRINT...