Armenian aggressors and "Artsakh" separatists are preparing to open a "second front" against Azerbaijan.  Iran, a critical ally of Russia and the Yerevan regime, has not given its "permission" to the Talysh separatist project. The Islamic Republic of Iran is also home to a significant Talysh community, and Tehran would not want to create a hotbed of instability and war near its borders, a precedent of separatism literally on its border, both for them and for other national minorities.

However, preparations for the deployment of another separatist project - the Lezgin project - are acquiring dangerous proportions. And, to all appearances, preparations for this have already started long ago, leading personnel and "cannon fodder" are being prepared, and an "ideological base" is being created.

In Russia itself, the public opinion media and propaganda are increasingly beginning to pay attention to Dagestan and Dagestanis, especially southern Dagestanis (including Lezgins) and their "heroism" in the war against Ukraine. It is not at all by chance that the Kremlin leadership, in particular President Vladimir Putin, has increased its attention to Dagestan and Muslims of Dagestan (especially the south of Dagestan, the place of compact residence of Lezgins and peoples close to them). Especially since the Kremlin appointed an ethnic Lezgin, Sergei Malikov, as the head of Dagestan.

Lezgi separatist leaders have also become active, including those hiding behind Islamic rhetoric. Such, in particular, is the so-called "Imam of Lezgistan" Asul Kasumov, who was a member of the Lezgi separatist movement "Sadval". Recently, Asul Kasumov published a video message in which he "cursed the Aliyev regime and Azerbaijan". Asul Kasumov is outraged that Azerbaijan defends its state interests and fights with separatists like him.  Recall that he was "12 years in the zone in Azerbaijan" Asul Kasumov blasted the "Baku special services", saying that " they constantly persecute us, all organisations, and many of our Lezgins they destroyed".

"Everyone knows that Azerbaijan openly helps to kill our Dagestanis, Caucasians, Russians through Ukraine" - states Asul Kasumov. According to Kasumov, "enemy number one for the Lezgins is the Azerbaijani authorities."

By the way, Asul Kasumov's best friends are Armenian nationalists and "Artsakh" separatists.  Earlier he stated that "...no Lezgin should fight against the Armenians of Daghlig Garabagh. Armenians have not seized Lezgistan..."

In other words, everything goes to the fact that the Armenian lobby and the Kremlin can and have intentions to open a "second front", using Lezgin separatists in an attempt to keep the region in a controlled separatist regime, including saving the "face" of the "Artsakh" separatists. They can organise aggression through Lezghin separatism in a way already proven in the same Ukrainian Donbass (and earlier in Georgian Abkhazia and Samachablo and in Azerbaijani Karabakh). Military actions on the side of separatists in the Caucasus have almost always been conducted by Russian military, but officially the Kremlin declared that there are "no Russian servicemen there" and that "local" servicemen are fighting.

Apparently, serious military personnel are being trained for the military "needs" of the Lezgin separatist project. For example, how to explain strange at first glance "zigzags in the career" of such a Russian general as Ecedulla Abachev. He is a native of Southern Dagestan, a Tabasaran by nationality (a people close to the Lezgins).

Rustam Muradov, the former commander of the Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh, is also a Tabasaran, who according to some sources has managed to "closely cooperate" in corruption schemes with "Artsakh" separatists and representatives of the Armenian lobby in the Russian Federation.

Unexpectedly, on the eve of the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Esedulla Abachev was appointed commander of the so-called 2nd Corps of the so-called "People's Militia of the LNR". That is, a Russian general of Dagestani origin was appointed to command the troops of the separatists of the so-called LNR.

That is, having nothing to do with the Ukrainian Donbass, Esedulla Abachev suddenly became "commander of the Donbass militia" (according to the rhetoric of the Kremlin propaganda) in its Lugansk part. And none of the separatists had any questions about the appearance of such a "varyag" for some reason.

The official biography of Ecedulla Abachev says that he "participated in military operations: the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, the second Chechen war, the war in Georgia in 2008, the military operation in Syria". Ecedulla Abachev, in fact, participated in the first Karabakh war, in which, as we know, the Russian military fought for Armenia and "Artsakh" separatists. He also took part in supporting the separatists during the aggression of the Russian Federation against Georgia.

In fact, in the person of Esedullah Abachev we have a potential "militia commander" of the separatist "Lezgistan", who can easily be "seconded" to lead an invasion and separatist project on the territory of Azerbaijan.  Just as he was sent on a "business trip" to lead the "people's militia" of the separatist LNR on the territory of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, if we analyse Ecedulla Abachev's actions as a military specialist, he achieved certain successes. Ecedulla Abachev managed to seize in 2022 a large part of the Lugansk region of Ukraine (i.e. the territory "officially" claimed by the separatist LNR). But at what cost?!

Such a "total mobilisation", which was announced in the separatist LNR, has never happened, perhaps, in any of the most militarised countries in the world. Separatists "raked out" and put the entire male population of the occupied Luhansk region under the gun as "cannon fodder", and Ecedulla Abachev then threw poorly trained and armed "mobiks" wave after wave to "meat storms" of Ukrainian positions, in which the separatists suffered monstrous losses.

 That is, the potential residents of "independent Lezgistan" have something to think about. Separatists "Sadvala" and such "commanders" as Ecedulla Abachev in case of the beginning of the implementation of the Lezgian separatist project can simply arrange a "mobilisation genocide" of the entire male population and literally "halve" the Lezgian people with their bloody adventure.

Personnel for the future separatist war are being actively prepared not only at the level of generals and senior officers. Russian aggressors are also training potential fighters for the "Lezgin separatist front" in the fighting in Ukraine. The current Ukrainian war is giving combat experience to a significant number of mobilised Dagestani youth. Those of them who survive the Ukrainian massacre may well be treated in a separatist and anti-Azerbaijani spirit and left to "liberate Lezgistan". The Ukrainian war has spawned the formation of "PMC format" Armenian "battalion" "ARBAT", which will soon become a corps or division, depending on the "taste and desire" of the Kremlin. It has already started to be "tested" on the Ukrainian front, and it is not a problem to replenish it with "cannon fodder" (it can be of non-Armenian origin) to be used in a new separatist war in Karabakh or in any other separatist project against Azerbaijan and Georgia.

George Mazniashvili