Will They Stay Or Will They Go? Russian Peacekeepers In The Post-Soviet Space

A member of the Russian peacekeeping troops stands next to a tank near the border with Armenia following the signing of a deal to end the military conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.

More than 400 Russian troops of a planned 2,000 were already being put in place on November 11 as part of a renewable five-year peacekeeping mission.

Military vehicles stand next to a plane as Russian peacekeepers arrive at an airport outside Yerevan on November 11.

While the announcement of the cease-fire deal triggered celebrations in Azerbaijan, it sparked angry protests in Armenia, with demonstrators storming government buildings and parliament.

The truce came after Azerbaijani forces made major battlefield gains, including reports they were approaching Nagorno-Karabakh's main city of Stepanakert after taking the nearby strategic town of Shushi, known as Susa in Azeri.

In June 1992, Russia's Boris Yeltsin (right) and Georgia's Eduard Shevardnadze met in Sochi, and signed an agreement that ended sporadic low-level fighting in South Ossetia, in which up to 1,000 people had died over the previous few years. It created a trilateral Joint Peacekeeping Force comprising 500 peacekeepers each from Russia, Georgia, and North Ossetia (co-ethnics of the population in South Ossetia across the border in Russia), as well as a commission overseeing them.

Russian peacekeepers guard a checkpoint in South Ossetia.

The peace held until 2004, when Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in Georgia. Between cracking down on cross-border smuggling and a failed clandestine attempt to retake the region by force, tensions grew and the peacekeeping commission failed to meet at all as each party raised objections.

Russian tanks move through Tskhinvali in August 2008.

In early August 2008, South Ossetian forces began shelling Georgian villages and Georgian forces retaliated. Each side accused the other of initiating the violence. On August 7, Georgia moved in troops and attempted to regain control of South Ossetia. Moscow responded quickly with a large force of tanks and troops, driving Georgian troops back and occupying a number of towns before a cease-fire on August 12.

A Russian peacekeeper guards a checkpoint at the Inguri River in Abkhazia on August 14, 2008.

In Georgia's other breakaway region of Abkhazia, Russian peacekeepers had been stationed since 1994 to stop military clashes and ethnic cleansing that began in 1992, along with unarmed UN observers. This force fought sporadically with local Georgian militants as well as militants from the neighboring North Caucasus. As fighting broke out in South Ossetia in August 2008, Russian and Abkhaz forces attacked Georgian troops in the Kodori Gorge and then moved into Georgia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (center) shakes hands with the leaders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Eduard Kokoity (right) and Sergei Bagapsh, in Moscow in September 2008.

On August 26, 2008, Russia recognized the two regions as independent states. Russia has maintained troops in both regions, which have been recognized as independent by only a handful of other countries, including Syria in 2018.

A column of Russian armored vehicles withdraws through Rukhi, Georgia, on its way to Abkhazia in October 2008.

After recognizing Abkhaziaand Soth Ossetia, Russia built a number of military bases in the two regions, and also protects their borders and supports both regions financially. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been effectively turned into Russian dependencies.

Russian peacekeepers guard a checkpoint in Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region in January 2012.

A force comprising troops from Moldova, Russia, and the breakaway region of Transdniester was set up following a truce in 1992 to stop fighting between Moldovan forces and Transdniestrian forces backed by Cossacks and Russian troops stationed in the enclave. The peace has held since then, but Transdniester's independence is not recognized by any country. Russia has refused repeated demands by the Moldovan government to facilitate the replacement of Russian troops with internationally recognized peacekeepers and maintains strong influence in Moldova as a whole.