Why didn't the Soviet Union consider backing Baluch separatists in Pakistan in retaliation for supporting the Afghan resistance?

The Soviets were quite gunshy about backing internecine conflicts, having been drawn against their will into both Cuba and Yugoslavia. A large part of why the Soviet Union collapsed is the amount of resources they were forced to pour into both countries, even to the point of providing free education and training to Cubans and Yugoslavians on Moscow’s dime, propping up those countries’ infrastructure even while the Soviets’ own was crumbling. To this day, Cuba has some of the best doctors in the world as part of some of the most comprehensive health care anywhere in the world—all thanks to the Soviets.

Every time the Soviets reached out their hand, they got burned. Afghanistan is another example. Asked for help by Afghanistani communists, the Soviets built hospitals and schools all the while their troops were being fed into a meat grinder hand-cranked by the CIA with massive shipments of weapons to Islamic religious fanatics.

Can you really blame the Soviets for not wanting to get drawn into another similar conflict?

Well done STS. And you can bet that the Soviets considered it. They came to the proper conclusion. WE are the ones who failed to learn their lessons.

^Now it’s America’s turn, to keep their noses, out of other country’s affairs…
And yes. GA STS…

I suspect that supporting Baluch separatists in Pakistan would have generated wider regional complications that would have not made it worth it. For one thing, a fragmented Pakistan would have become a tempting target for India. Baluch separatism would have also spread to Iran, creating a backfire effect, uniting two countries against Russia closer that have not always been so warm with each other in the past.

It should also be noted that the Soviet Union tried experiments in backing separatists in NE Iran in 1946. The western block pulled various economic and military levers against the Soviets that compelled them to back off in embarrassment.