This book examines the origins and execution of Russian military and political activities in Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan. Using a realist perspective, the author concludes that there are substantial similarities in the four case studies: Russian support for minority separatist movements, conflict, Russian intervention as peacekeepers, Russian control over the diplomatic process to prevent resolution of the conflict, and a perpetuation of Russian presence in the area. The author places the conflicts in the context of international law and nationalism theory.

This book explores the thirty-year border conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, specifically around the former autonomous republic of Nagorno Karabakh, and shows how Russia is the only winner in this conflict: fighting on both sides, supplying arms to both sides, and acting as the arbiter between the two sides. The author looks at Armenia, Azerbaijan and the separatists from military, political, economic and diplomatic perspectives, and offers insights on how the fighting has influenced society, and vice versa. The book provides an update to the history of the war to include major fighting in 2020, and examines how Russia obtained three military bases and most economic assets in Armenia, while becoming Azerbaijan's major weapons supplier to the tune of six billion dollars. It shows how Russia has tried to sideline the internationally-supported Minsk negotiations in favor of Russia assuming the sole role of arbiter, and argues that even though Russia has submitted a number of ceasefire proposals, it does little to encourage the sides to implement them. The book includes a discussion of international law, United Nations Resolutions, and rulings by the European Court of Human Rights. James J. Coyle is an international consultant on security and foreign policy. A diplomat for 24 years, he held a variety of positions, including Director of Middle East Studies at the US Army War College. He is the author of Russia's Border Wars and Frozen Conflicts (2018) and a frequent contributor to The Hill. He has taught at several universities in Southern California, and was a nonresident fellow of the Atlantic Council.

The five unresolved separatist conflicts of the post-Soviet space in Eastern Europe are the biggest risk to Europe’s stability and security. Four of these – Abkhazia, South Ossetia in Georgia, Transnistria in Moldova, and Nagorny Karabakh contested between Armenia and Azerbaijan – date back to around the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991-2, and became called ‘frozen conflicts’. The fifth is Ukraine’s Donbas, which in 2014 saw large parts of its Donetsk and Luhansk regions violently separate from Kyiv at a cost of 13,000 human lives so far, due crucially to Russia’s supporting hybrid warfare there. This book is the first to give an up-to-date account of all five conflicts in an analytically consistent manner. It charts new territory in exploring systematically a full range of scenarios for the possible future of all five conflicts and offers a basis of sound information for officials, diplomats, scholars and the general public.

This book explores the thirty-year border conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, specifically around the former autonomous republic of Nagorno Karabakh, and shows how Russia is the only winner in this conflict: fighting on both sides, supplying arms to both sides, and acting as the arbiter between the two sides. The author looks at Armenia, Azerbaijan and the separatists from military, political, economic and diplomatic perspectives, and offers insights on how the fighting has influenced society, and vice versa. The book provides an update to the history of the war to include major fighting in 2020, and examines how Russia obtained three military bases and most economic assets in Armenia, while becoming Azerbaijan's major weapons supplier to the tune of six billion dollars. It shows how Russia has tried to sideline the internationally-supported Minsk negotiations in favor of Russia assuming the sole role of arbiter, and argues that even though Russia has submitted a number of ceasefire proposals, it does little to encourage the sides to implement them. The book includes a discussion of international law, United Nations Resolutions, and rulings by the European Court of Human Rights.

The war in Georgia. Tensions with Ukraine and other nearby countries. Moscow's bid to consolidate its "zone of privileged interests" among the Commonwealth of Independent States. These volatile situations all raise questions about the nature of and prospects for Russia's relations with its neighbors. In this book, Carnegie scholar Dmitri Trenin argues that Moscow needs to drop the notion of creating an exclusive power center out of the post-Soviet space. Like other former European empires, Russia will need to reinvent itself as a global player and as part of a wider community. Trenin's vision of Russia is an open Euro-Pacific country that is savvy in its use of soft power and fully reconciled with its former borderlands and dependents. He acknowledges that this scenario may sound too optimistic but warns that the alternative is not a new version of the historic empire but instead is the ultimate marginalization of Russia.

As Cold War battle lines are seemingly re-drawn, Russia's various 'frozen' war zones (ongoing separatist conflicts) are often cited as particularly volatile and assumed by some Western commentators and policymakers to be 'next' on Putin's 'wish list'. But, as Helena Rytövuori-Apunen demonstrates here, this is a gross (and dangerous) oversimplification that will only serve to fuel the vicious circle of reciprocal military escalation. Drawing on a range of empirical research and across separatist conflicts in Georgia (South Ossetia and Abkhazia), Moldova (Transnistria and Gagauzia) and Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh) and the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, her timely book provides a balanced assessment and critique of the assumptions and misunderstandings that inform mainstream discussions, as well as placing the conflicts in their proper and complex historical contexts. At a time when there is an increasing tendency to view Russia as the source of all instability in Eastern Europe, Power and Conflict in Russia's Borderlands is essential reading for anyone interested in the geopolitics of post-Soviet Russia, as well as policymakers and practitioners of peace/conflict resolution studies.

"Skillfully lays out Mr. Putin's approach to the Middle East." Wall Street Journal "Detailed and fascinating." Diplomatic Courier Putin intervened in Syria in September 2015, with international critics predicting that Russia would overextend itself and Barack Obama suggesting the country would find itself in a “quagmire” in Syria. Contrary to this, Anna Borshchevskaya argues that in fact Putin achieved significant key domestic and foreign policy objectives without crippling costs, and is well-positioned to direct Syria's future and become a leading power in the Middle East. This outcome has serious implications for Western foreign policy interests both in the Middle East and beyond. This book places Russian intervention in Syria in this broader context, exploring Putin's overall approach to the Middle East – historically Moscow has a special relationship with Damascus – and traces the political, diplomatic, military and domestic aspects of this intervention. Borshchevskaya delves into the Russian military campaign, public opinion within Russia, as well as Russian diplomatic tactics at the United Nations. Crucially, this book illustrates the impact of Western absence in Syria, particularly US absence, and what the role of the West is, and could be, in the Middle East.