Baku, August 30, 2025 — Russian journalist and commentator Maxim Shevchenko has warned against turning the Caspian Sea into an arena for external power games, calling it a “sacred zone” that belongs only to its littoral states.
Speaking in a recent interview, Shevchenko argued that the region’s stability is too often undermined by outside provocations and geopolitical manipulation, even as Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran face pressing shared challenges — from security to environmental degradation.
“The Caspian is not a playground for outsiders. Hands off the Caspian,” Shevchenko said, insisting that the sea should be preserved as a zone of cooperation, ecology, and mutual security, not as another front line in great-power rivalry.
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He pointed to mass die-offs of seals, declining water levels due to upstream dams, and rising pollution as urgent issues requiring joint regional action. At the same time, Shevchenko stressed that militarization of the Caspian, or attempts by non-regional actors to inject themselves into its politics, are unacceptable.
According to him, recent tensions in Russian-Azerbaijani relations — fueled by incidents such as the Shusha conference controversy and targeted media provocations — demonstrated how easily “external forces” exploit fault lines. But he argued the tide is now turning: projects like the proposed Russian gas transit through Azerbaijan to Iran show the pragmatic potential of cooperation when “emotions are set aside.”
Shevchenko’s warning resonates at a moment when the Caspian, long seen as a closed geopolitical space, is increasingly affected by global energy, transit, and security agendas. His message is clear: for the five littoral states, the Caspian should remain a regional commons, not a geopolitical battlefield.
