Russian peacekeepers have begun withdrawing from Azerbaijan’s Karabakh

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russian peacekeepers had begun withdrawing from Azerbaijan’s Karabakh area, ending a multi-year deployment which gave Moscow an important foothold in the strategically-important South Caucasus region.
Azerbaijan retook the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in September last year despite the presence there of Russian peacekeepers in a move which triggered the mass exodus of ethnic Armenians living there.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has since questioned his country’s traditional alliance with Russia – which has a string of military facilities inside Armenia – and has started to forge closer ties with the West.
Armenia has also asked Russian border guards to leave their posts at the country’s main airport in Yerevan from Aug. 1.