Russian Military in Karabakh: Peacekeepers or PMC? Following latest provocations of RPC

The breaking of a furuncle is a surgery aimed at the removal of a purulent nidus and the cleaning of a wound. With surgical precision in the fall of 2020, the Azerbaijani army carried out the operation, clearing most of the Karabakh region from the pus infection that had devoured it for almost 30 years. Then, on the night of November 9-10, 2020, when signing the Trilateral Statement, at the request of Baku, paragraph No. 4 was included in it, indicating in black and white: “The peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation is being deployed in parallel with the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces.” However, even today, nearly two years later, this clause (as well as clause No.9 on the unblocking of economic and transport links in the region) continues to be ignored by both the Armenian and Russian sides, which quite obviously causes acute discontent in Azerbaijan.

According to the UN criteria, there are three basic principles that allow treating peacekeeping operations as an independent tool for ensuring international peace and security. And one of them is impartiality. "Despite the need to establish and maintain good relations with the parties to the conflict, a peacekeeping operation must avoid in every possible way actions that might call into question its impartiality. A mission must not shy away from rigorously adhering to the principle of impartiality for fear of misunderstanding or retaliation. Such noncompliance could undermine the credibility and legitimacy of peacekeepers and lead to withdrawal of consent for its presence by one or more parties to the conflict," according to the UN Peacekeeping Operations website.

Unfortunately, in the case of Russian peacekeepers temporarily deployed on the territory of the Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan, we have not seen any impartiality on their part. Moreover, the situation of 1988-1992 is almost identical. We should remind that at that time, by the decision of the Union Center, the units of Interior Troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defence were brought into the NKAO and neighboring regions of Azerbaijan. The official reason was to maintain peace and order and disarm illegal Armenian gangs. However, in reality, everything turned out differently - even hunting rifles, for which they had permits, were seized from the Azerbaijani population and the Armenian militants were armed not only with small arms but also with large-caliber machine guns and even grenade launchers. Moreover, despite the presence of honest and impartial officers in the leadership of the Soviet troops deployed in the NKAO, they were nevertheless unable to change the overall picture for the main reason beyond their control - the duplicitous policy of Moscow, which supported the principle of the inviolability of borders in words, but in reality, was rather loyal to the separatism of Karabakh Armenians and the aggressive aspirations of Armenia. In addition, there were seconded persons in command positions in the military commandant's office of the NKAO, who, ignoring their official duty and officer's honor, sold themselves to the Armenian bandit underground. The most famous among them is still a "big friend" of the Armenian people Victor Krivopuskov who in 1990-1991 held the post of the chief of staff of the investigative-operative group of the USSR MIA in NKAO which didn't prevent him from sweating in the sauna with Kocharyan, Sarkissian and other leaders of the underground, whom he, in fact, had to arrest. Later, in Yeltsin's time, Russia shamelessly helped Armenia to occupy Azerbaijani territories. All kinds of Russian arms were given to Armenians not only at the state level (remember at least the scandal of transferring arms to Armenia for $5 billion, initiated by honest General Rokhlin) but also sold by the Russian military in Karabakh literally for a bottle of vodka. By the way, we will talk about the latter below.

In the meantime, let's go back to our days. Since the signing of the Trilateral Statement, Azerbaijan has repeatedly expressed public indignation at the inactivity of the Russian Peacekeeping Contingent in the Karabakh region. And not only the inactivity but also indulging in destructive actions of the Armenian side. This includes the "see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing" policy when not only all kinds of french politicians like Valerie Pecresse are leaking into Azerbaijan from Armenia through the Lachin corridor, but also regular Armenian army units which the peacekeepers are supposed to disarm and remove from Karabakh. There is also the taking of the remnants of Armenian gangs under the security umbrella. There is a lot to talk about, which our readers already know from the previous Caliber.Az articles. It is not surprising that official Baku, putting aside political correctness, has expressed to Moscow its concern and dissatisfaction with the peacekeeping contingent - from the Kremlin to the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Defence. The latest example was President Ilham Aliyev's speech at the July 15 cabinet meeting, in which he outlined in detail and objectively Baku's position on resolving the situation and establishing a peaceful dialogue in Karabakh, indicating the problems that require immediate resolution. The addressees of this message were clearly specified - Moscow and Yerevan. In this context, Ilham Aliyev recalled that the Russian side had signed the Declaration of November 10, but does not force Armenia to withdraw its troops from Karabakh. President Aliyev also noted an important point: Baku had repeatedly raised the issue of the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from Karabakh to the Russian military leadership, and a high-ranking official of the Russian Defence Ministry in Azerbaijan even assured that it would happen before June. The President did not mention any specific names, but according to Caliber.Az the Russian military officer who was giving out such promises was Colonel General Aleksey Kim, Deputy Commander of the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation for Peacekeeping Activities.

However, only a few days after Aliyev's clear message, the Russian Peacekeeping Contingent, temporarily deployed on the territory of Azerbaijan, resorted to provocations. Yesterday Caliber.Az published exclusive footage showing how the Russian military demolished the roof of a one-storey residential building in [liberated] Lachin District's Garakaha village. It is noteworthy that the "security of the daring special operation to deroof the building" of the marauders is provided by the armoured personnel carrier 82A standing on their armament.

There is more to come. On July 19, Armenian gangs began engineering works to create combat positions in the direction of the Shushakend village of the Khojaly region. But when the Azerbaijani military tried to prevent this provocation, Russian peacekeepers arrived on the spot and...took the Armenian militants under their protection.

And finally, another incident with the participation of Russian peacekeepers these days. At the checkpoint in Aghdam, Azerbaijani servicemen stopped a convoy of Russian peacekeepers - one APC (armoured personnel carrier) 82A and three Ural trucks - which was following the Askeran-Aghdere route for inspection. During the inspection of the vehicles, at least five Kalashnikov AKMs were found in the cargo compartment of one of the vehicles, which were not specified in the documentation. A return to the dashing and bloody 90s, when Russian servicemen armed Armenian gangs for a bottle of vodka? Beyond any doubt.

Do you know what the most appalling in this situation? Even if there is a declaration on allied cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan, in which the parties recognize each other's territorial integrity, Russian peacekeepers in the Karabakh region act as if they were an independent military structure from Moscow, like a PMC hired by Armenian bandits, without looking back at their military leadership. Indeed, when analyzing the behavior of the RPC in Azerbaijani society, there is an impression that the peacekeepers fan the flame of Armenian separatism in Karabakh. However, we are sure that this is not a new discovery for Baku and they have probably already made the relevant conclusions, on the basis of which the necessary measures will be taken.