If we mark the hottest points of the 21st century on the world map, they will take the shape of a crescent moon, enveloping the European Union and Russia with fire.

The ancients knew that “saying something occurred after an event doesn’t mean it occurred because of that event. And this was often true. But what if events which are not just similar, but form a common canvas, happening within the same four or five days in different countries?

On July 14, during the celebration of Bastille Day in Nice, a truck driven by a 31-year old citizen barreled into a crowd of people and left 84 dead and more than a hundred injured.

Forty-eight hours after the slaughter in Nice, members of the military tried to organize a coup in Turkey. While everyone was learning the details of the revolt in Turkey, on Saturday morning, armed men occupied the police station in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, killing one policeman and injuring four.

On Monday morning, July 18, automatic gunfire was heard in the Kazakh city of Almaty. The attackers opened fire at police near their station. As was reported later, the National Security Committee building was also attacked, resulting in five people dead. The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev called it a terrorist attack.

These events cannot be coincidental.  Even the Kremlin, not prone to generalizations, had to react: “This turbulence near our borders is disturbing. We will monitor the situation closely,”  the Press Secretary of the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov, said, adding that the necessary measures were being implemented, “taking into account new information”.

The reaction of an ordinary person to this constant stream of information is the following:“The world has gone crazy.”  Intellectuals go in for conspiracy theories, Masonic or special services, Masters of the Universe, transnational corporations, all organized by the White House.

But it’s much worse. Before the USSR collapsed, there were two nuclear superpowers in the world, each with its own allies. Without judging who was right or wrong, the world was in balance, thanks to the threat of guaranteed mutual extermination.

After the USSR collapsed, the one superpower left recruited new allies and vassals, suppressed and/or drew the former countries of the “socialist camp” and the Warsaw Pact to its side. NATO grew and approached the Russian frontiers, even occupying the former Baltic States. There was a question whether Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan would join NATO, and a campaign was started to grant independence to Chechnya. They US was certain that Russia would break down by the end of the 1990s. They only argued about exactly when.

By the end of the 20th century, when Russia started “getting up from its knees”, the US was the sole ruler of the world. Their allies were their only rivals. China was far away, militarily a paper dragon, more concerned with its internal problems, and never having won a foreign war.

The situation was worse with the European Union, which had already become equal in economic power to the United States and could actually confront it, all the more disturbing given that Russia was nearby.

The biggest power in the world with the biggest stock of raw materials, connecting the European Union with China, posed a serious threat to US rule, able to connect three elements of economic dominance over the Eurasian market. The highest level of scientific and technological development of the European Union, vast expanses and stocks of raw materials in Russia and the practically inexhaustible Chinese labor force…

If these three areas were in agreement, why would they need the US? And most importantly – why would they need the dollar, which US wellbeing was based upon in the post-war world?

So they reacted: no need to list all the countries exposed to their fire. Suffice it to say that there was nothing left but terrorists in each state after “democratization” – Libya foremost. Together with that, a series of color revolutions “coincidentally” happened along the frontiers of Russia and the European Union. In addition to the countries involved, it is Russia and the European Union that suffer from both terrorist attacks and color revolutions.

Of course the biggest US achievement was Ukraine. They needed a smoldering area of instability between Russia and the European Union, not only geographically but also politically. They managed to accomplish that: the EU and Russia suffer economic losses, not the US. A brilliant operation that cost only $5 billion and a few bags of cookies.

This is exactly what has been happening of late. Americans, taking the region under their wing, constantly fuel a smoldering fire. People become accustomed to everything, and leaders find a way out of any situation. The most reasonable position for the US is to preserve the status-quo: Russia engages in Ukraine; Europe in refugees, maintaining the confrontation; while the US is above the fray, a world arbiter, “guarantor of peace and stability”.

But Europeans started looking for a way out. Russia unexpectedly conducted a successful operation in Syria. Moreover, Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan took himself for Ataturk 2.0, wanting to build a new Ottoman Empire, which would be the center of the Muslim world. This was inadmissible and measures were not long in coming.

Don’t think that the order to start a coup in Turkey was given from the White House. The US preferred to stand aside, not noticing anything, not seeing the Turkish conspirators at their air base in Incirlik, full of counter-intelligence and spies. Besides, the Turkish army had plenty of reasons for discontent.

This was similar to what happened in Nice. A mentally unstable and not very law-abiding Frenchman, whose family remained in Tunis, is a piece of the cake for Islamist recruiters. The US managed to create such a long-term trend of mutual hatred and intolerance that it was enough for “a friend” to whisper that France is bombing “coreligionists” and that “rich, stated disbelievers must be punished”.

But let’s get back to Russia’s frontiers, to the attack on the police station in Armenia. It didn’t happen out of the blue. We all remember that recently Nagorno-Karabakh was “on fire”, barely doused out with the help of Russia. The “passionate revolutionaries” evidently weren’t comfortable with that.

The official reason was the arrest of the leader of the radical opposition New Armenia Public Salvation Front, Jirair Sefilian. A colorful person, the hero of the war in the Nagorno-Karabakh, commander of a large squadron that successfully fought the Azeri army, who over the last years has been opposing the government. This is usual for former heroes who are not needed in civilian life; people with unfulfilled ambitions.

Actually, Jirair Sefilian is not such a simple and straightforward person. He was born in Lebanon, where he lived almost until the collapse of the USSR. During the civil war in Lebanon, Sefilian was active in the Dashnaktsutyun party, which eventually sent him to Armenia to train volunteers. Among other things, this party, dating back to the 19th century, practiced terrorism. Being raised in Lebanon according to local war-making and revolutionary traditions, Sefilian and his supporters fit in well with modern international terrorism. Especially taking into account that the party that sent him to Armenia claims Turkish territory.

If people with such values came to power in Armenia, it would be a great gift for “our American partners”. This means that the attack on the police station (a modern mini-fortress, which had to be forced by ramming), well-prepared and brilliantly staged, is not the end of the story – they won’t leave Armenia alone.

Against this background, the attack on the police in Almaty looks insignificant. Little information is available, not even the names of the people arrested. But no ordinary killers wake up at 8am to kill policemen and attack a National Security Committee for no special reason. This is a suicide mission similar to the action by Bulel in France and the supporters of Sefilian in Yerevan.

The US exerts constant pressure on us and our European neighbors, using terrorists against the weakest Muslim states that form a crescent in the south of Russia and the European Union. The attacks cannot be successful but they keep populations and governments in suspense, with gaping holes in security systems and shootings in the capitals, spreading panic among the population.

Under these circumstances, Russia must not give in to provocations. We need to constantly ask ourselves: “Who stands to benefit from this?” And if it’s not profitable to us but to our “overseas partners”, we need to resist emotional reactions. “Putin, commit troops”? In your dreams! “Russia, hands off Ukraine! The Crimea and a piece of the Donbass are enough for you.” Ditto. “Break off relations with Turkey”? Dream on. “Implement severe sanctions against the EU to make them starve”? No way.

Right, as Alexander III The Peacemaker said: “Russia has only two allies – its army and its navy.” He was mistaken, being an emperor of his time. Russia has many allies, but no friends. But we are witnessing “true friendship” between the US and the European Union, and between the US and Turkey.