Russia and the Caucasus

Abstract

IntroductionRussian influence in the South Caucasus region has a long history. Czar Ivan IV initiated construction of the Tarki fortress on the Caspian Sea as early as 1559. In the subsequent centuries Russia gradually extended control over the surrounding area, culminating with the 1829 Treaty of Turkmenchay that established the Aras River as the expanding empire's boundary with Persia.1 Russian policy toward the region has been dominated by the goal of maintaining a position of influence ever since.Challenges to Russian control have arisen from both internal and external sources. Between 1817 and 1863 Russia fought what it calls the Caucasian War against coalitions of local tribes led by the famous Imam Shamil, eventually prevailing in armed conflict that was prosecuted with incredible savagery.2 Modem ethnic nationalism emerged in a Caucasus subjected to czarist control, with local identities conditioned by the status of Russia as a foil for resentment.3 A tradition of armed resistance to Russian control can be traced from the Caucasian War to the present. Against the background of the Russian Revolutions of 1917, the peoples of the Caucasus launched unsuccessful attempts to consolidate independent states, and during the 1920s and 1930s there were numerous local uprisings in defiance of Soviet power.4 The tradition of militant opposition to Russian domination has reemerged in the post-Soviet period and remains important source of regional instability.The greater Caucasus has also been a subject of geopolitical competition between external actors. During the Crimean War (1853-1856) Ahmed Pasha led Ottoman armies into the Caucasus with the goal of pushing Russia north of the Terek and Kuban Rivers, a campaign whose logic (and unsuccessful outcome) was replayed by Ottoman forces under Enver Pasha during the First World War. The Caucasus was also the target of offensive by Hitler's Wehrmacht during the Second World War, who were beaten back by the Soviet armed forces at cost.5 Parvrn Darabadi characterizes these episodes as part of a larger struggle waged on the global chessboard to control a great Eurasian Central-Eurasia megazone including the Black and Caspian Seas.6 Today's conflicts for influence in the Caucasus region between the U.S. and its Western allies and the Russian Federation fit neatly into this tradition.The promise of a new beginning offered by the dismantling of the Soviet Union has not been fulfilled. Between 1994 and 1996 Boris Yeltsin's Russia fought the First Chechen War in attempt to squelch separatism in the Russian North Caucasus, with catastrophic results. In the Second Chechen War (1999-2009) Russia achieved greater success, but armed resistance in the region has not been eliminated. Against the background of the Soviet collapse Armenia and Azerbaijan waged war over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, while Georgia lost control over the rebellious provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, giving rise to protracted or frozen conflicts that remain unresolved.7 Since the accession of Vladimir Putin to power in the Kremlin in 2000, Russia has committed to a long-term effort to restore something like its traditional dominant status. When the Georgian government of Mikhel Saakashvili sought to regain control over South Ossetia in 2008, Russia responded with a devastating invasion that seemed to make its goals, and the capacity that it possessed to pursue them, crystal clear.8Russia pursues assertive regional policy in the Caucasus consistent with its historical traditions, which portray the region as an inalienable part of the history and fate of Russia, as well as its contemporary geostrategic interests.9 Meanwhile, its longstanding role as a major player in the region continues to shape its perceptions and priorities. Russia's policy toward the South Caucasus is also aligned with a larger vision for post-Soviet Eurasia, which is viewed as the crucible within which Russia will eventually be able to reassert itself as a world power - a dynamic exposed once again by Russian reactions to the conflict that has been unfolding in Ukraine since 2013. …