Politics, security and defense analysis.

  First Nagorno Karabakh war In 1988, prior to the fall of the USSR, ethnically inspired riots started breaking out in the South Caucasus between Azeris and Armenians, especially in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Soviet leadership, looking elsewhere, was incapable of hindering the soaring violence. The Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic had been legally part of the Azerbaijan SSR, so when the Union was broken, Nagorno Karabakh, despite being populated by a majority of Armenians, was considered to be legally a part of Azerbaijan. At the end of 1991 Nagorno Karabakh was declared the independent and Armenian led Republic of Artsakh by its people, but it did not receive any diplomatic recognition, including by Armenia. The young republic of Azerbaijan was outraged, and did not intend to allow a breakaway state from forming. Nagorno Karabakh here shown in a brighter shade of yellow than the rest of Azerbaijan (image source wikimedia) The ethnic and political conflict

  Part one: History and identity of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Flag of the CSTO The CSTO is usually (if even discussed) described as either Russia’s attempt at making an alternative to NATO, or as a successor to the Warsaw Pact. I would argue the CSTO is much more accurately described as a successor to the Soviet Union, as part of the web of cooperation that eased the transition from empire to a patchwork of independent semi-failed states. Much like the rest of this cooperation, it serves to ensure states remain in the Russian sphere. Russia has a term for the former USSR, that being "the near abroad", implicitly stating that this region is more important for their foreign policy than any other, and that they consider themselves validated in acting in that space.  Directly after the fall of the Soviet Union there was an agreement among the majority of the successor states to form the CIS, the Confederacy of Independent States. In the early 90s the militar