Vartan Oskanian doesn't seem to see the "Russian factor" as an obstalce for the three Caucasus neighbours Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to unite and "achieve their common goals of stability, prosperity, and democracy", like the Benelux countries or the Baltic states.

The Kremlin applies relentlessly its "rule-and-divide" policies to ensure its influence over the former Soviet republics and stop them from looking to the EU. Putin has always accused the US and its allies of ignoring the "Russian factor" in their eastern enlargement in Europe.

It's true that "Georgia is the most democratic of the three". Although Armenia had held elections since 1991, they haven't "brought a change of government". Azerbaijan is being ruled by the Aliyev dynasty, from father Heydar to son Ilham, who will stay in power indefinitely.

Georgia has cordial relations with Azerbaijan since World War One. Armenia's ties with Turkey are fraught over the mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman empire. A fragile ceasefire is in place with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Closed borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan have led to poverty and high unemployment in Armenia. Turkey had said it would open the border, depending on progress on the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. Amid economic isolation Moscow is Armenia's white knight, which doesn't have its own borders with Russia. Georgia lets Armenia use the Georgian-Russian Lars border passage through the Caucasus mountains, which provides a vital link for goods transport.

Indeed the three "contrasting experiences have led to starkly different – and dangerously divisive – foreign-policy approaches". Georgia had fought a war Russia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It defies Russia and aspires to join Nato and the EU. Armenia is at Moscow's mercy and will "join the Russian-led Eurasian Union, along with Belarus and Kazakhstan". The reason why "Azerbaijan has stayed away from both" is simple! Russia is said to have sided with the Armenian Christian majority against the Muslim Azeris in Nagorna-Karabakh, which is a restive enclave in Azerbaijan. That Georgia had rejected "the highly lucrative economic, energy, and financial incentives offered by Turkey and Azerbaijan to isolate Armenia," was notable.

No doubt it would serve the people in the region if the three countries could form a union of sorts. Yet as long as the "Russian factor" still looms large, there would be no "Western alternatives" of a regional security and economic cooperation between the three countries.