Russian peacekeepers will enter Nagorno-Karabakh. Who will it be? And what are their tasks?

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement . They agreed to end hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh and send Russian peacekeeping troops to the region.

Immediately after the signing of the agreement, Aliyev, in his address to the nation, announced the involvement of Turkish peacekeepers: “There will be a joint peacekeeping mission between Russia and Turkey. This is a new format."

We do not know exactly what the President of Azerbaijan meant. The joint statement does not directly mention Turkish peacekeepers. But it talks about a kind of peacekeeping center to monitor the ceasefire, which will be created “in order to increase the effectiveness of monitoring the implementation of agreements by the parties to the conflict.”

“The presence of Turkish soldiers in Karabakh was not agreed upon,” said Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov. “Indeed, there was talk of creating a center for monitoring ceasefire conditions on Azerbaijani territory. This is in Azerbaijan."

This is about two thousand Russian military personnel. Here's what the agreement says about them:

Along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor, a peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation is being deployed in the amount of 1,960 military personnel with small arms, 90 armored personnel carriers, 380 units of automobile and special equipment.

According to TASS, the core of the Russian contingent will be units of the 15th separate motorized rifle brigade. This is the only peacekeeping brigade in Russia.

Yes, in accordance with the decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 2004, this brigade was formed specifically to participate in peacekeeping operations. It consists only of contract soldiers. It was assumed that the officers of this brigade would be sent abroad for “training in the planning and conduct of peacekeeping operations.” The special status of this peacekeeping brigade stipulated that it would not have heavy weapons (tanks and artillery).

Yes, we did. In 2005–2008, servicemen from the 15th separate motorized rifle brigade served as peacekeepers in Abkhazia. According to the servicemen of this peacekeeping brigade, in 2008 its units took part in the war with Georgia (in Russia it was officially called a “peace enforcement operation”).

In 2014, servicemen of this brigade were awarded medals from the Ministry of Defense “For the Return of Crimea.” Ukrainian activists claimed that soldiers of the 15th separate motorized rifle brigade took part in the fighting in Donbass.

Peacekeepers will monitor the agreement on the cessation of hostilities by both sides of the conflict. To do this, they will set up observation posts along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor connecting the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic with Armenia. TASS clarifies that the command of the peacekeeping operation will be located near the city of Stepanakert, the administrative center of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Yes. In terms of the number of geographical locations , the most noticeable presence of Russian peacekeepers is in Africa: there they participate in five of the seven missions under the auspices of the UN, but in total there are a little more than 50 people; Even fewer people, according to 2019 data, were in other hot spots. All of them basically perform the functions of observers, that is, essentially, experts in the conflict zone.

Much larger is the Operational Group of Russian Forces (OGRF) in Transnistria, which is designed to prevent the resumption of war in this region, which demands independence from Moldova. However, fewer people are currently serving in the OGRF than in the future peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh - about 1,700 people. There is one more difference: the period of stay of the OGRF is not limited by any agreements, which is why Russia does not withdraw its troops, even despite the repeated demands of the Moldovan authorities. According to the agreement signed by Putin, Aliyev and Pashinyan, the peacekeepers will remain in Karabakh for five years and any of the parties has the right to demand their withdrawal no later than six months before the end of this period.

It's hard to say. The experience of Transnistria, as well as Abkhazia, where Russian peacekeepers served before the 2008 war, shows that after their deployment, the warring parties do not resume an intense conflict for at least a long time. Nevertheless, the threat to the lives of peacekeepers still exists. In the same Abkhazia, from 1994 to 2008, according to the Abkhaz authorities, 117 Russian servicemen were killed.

Denis Dmitriev with the participation of Dmitry Kartsev