The story of the peace agreement signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Washington is our shame. There are things that are better faced directly. If someone has humiliated us, insulted us, castrated us, raped us, then instead of saying “that’s how it should be” or “it’s nothing, it will heal,” it is better to look the truth in the eye.

This is a brutal humiliation of Russia. Not so long ago, we considered Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Nagorno-Karabakh as part of our territory. We administered there. Then we gave up those territories, but we believed we had retained influence — over Karabakh, for example, through an Armenia friendly to us. Then, under Pashinyan, Armenia stopped listening to us and began balancing its relations with Azerbaijan. We decided to befriend Azerbaijan. Now we have reached a catastrophic collapse of our policy in the South Caucasus. Yes, there is still Georgia, which under Ivanishvili has become less aggressive in its former Russophobia, but everything else is our complete failure.

That is exactly how this should be understood. That means there are those responsible. There are people who advised our president to act this way, to build relations in this manner with Baku, Yerevan, and Stepanakert. A failure is a failure. A humiliation is a humiliation. The fact that now Aliyev — whom we effectively assisted during the Karabakh war — and Pashinyan — who rose up against us — are working for our enemy is a slap in the face. This slap is not from America or the West, which are our enemies anyway. This is a blow from within.

Those same people inside Russia who engineered this, insisting “we’ll handle it ourselves” and rejecting outside involvement, should — if Putin had his way — face the ultimate punishment. However, we have a moratorium on the death penalty; we pride ourselves on being humane. After a catastrophic, monstrous, humiliating failure for the country and for our society, what often follows is only promotion. A man has stolen everything, ruined everything, and betrayed everyone — and receives a higher post.

Of course, this is an unhealthy position. Our people and our society want justice. We do not want blood, we do not want violence, but we do want justice. When we see that people remain completely unpunished for the total collapse of our policy in the South Caucasus, it is humiliating. The signing of this agreement in Washington points to our nullity, to the fact that we control nothing, even in the post-Soviet space. Who, in that case, will take us seriously at a higher level?

This pain, this insult, this slap must be understood precisely as a slap to each of us, to every Russian person. There is no point in saying:

“How bad they are! We told you Pashinyan is a Soros puppy, and Aliyev is a scoundrel who works for Erdogan and betrays our friendship.”

These are not arguments. Whatever one thinks of Pashinyan and Aliyev, their actions must be confronted head-on.

As my friend Yevgeny Vsevolodovich Golovin used to say:

“Face the external world as you would a strike: without turning away.”

You must not say, “So what if a tooth was knocked out? It had been aching for a long time and I was planning to remove it anyway.” Pain must not be euphemized. What happened with Aliyev and Pashinyan is our humiliation. That is exactly how it should be taken. That is healthier and more honest. We lost. We erred in entrusting work with Armenia and Azerbaijan to entirely the wrong people. There is no other way to explain it. If we do not regard this as a failure, if we do not accept this pain, we will cease to be human beings and a sovereign state-civilization.

Of course, justice is needed. Those who brought our country to such a result in foreign policy in our immediate neighborhood must be punished in a clear and visible way. This must end. It is time to confront everyone behind this disaster — the officials who shaped our South Caucasus policy, the diasporas that influenced it, and the external lobbyists who pushed it towards failure. Either we are an empire, a sovereign state-civilization, or we deserve everything we saw in Washington — when our two “allies” were licking the boots of our enemy.

Therefore, if the people responsible for all this walk away unpunished, then I have no good news. Of course, we are a great people. But if we do not regard failure as failure, betrayal as betrayal, and humiliation as humiliation, then we are worth nothing.