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As it is known, the Soviet Union's main purpose, besides "creating a Communist society", was "preventing the global war". The one, of course, which Western Militarism, Capitalism and Imperialism were constantly trying to ignite, the Soviet ideologists claimed. So, to protect World Peace and poor countries threatened by the West, the Soviet Union had the biggest Army in the world, and tried to infiltrate its military bases and contingents all over the globe. Just in case the awful Capitalists should try to attack…in the way it happened in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Afghanistan and other places. Well, skipping the sarcasm, these times are over. But it seems the Russian army has inherited the tradition of calling itself the greatest peacekeeper in the world , together with soviet-made "peacemaking" tools such as the "kalashnikov" automatic rifle.
Russian military personnel rank first among 103 UN peacekeeping mission participant nations in terms of the number of UN peacekeepers they make available. General Anatoly Mazurkevich, chief of the Russian Defense Ministry's Main International Cooperation Directorate, broke the news on June 15th at the opening ceremony of the international UN peacekeeping mission command personnel training course in the town of Domodedovo (Moscow region) as reported by the official RIA Novosti last week. "Russian servicemen operate as part of 12 UN peacekeeping missions and rank first among 103 participating countries as far as their total strength is concerned," Gen. Mazurkevich said. First Deputy of the Russian Interior Ministry, Alexander Chekalin, reported that more than 600 Interior Ministry personnel have been on UN peacekeeping missions since 1992. "At present, 107 officers are on missions in eight countries," the first deputy interior minister noted.
It sounds very commendable; this peacekeeping of the Russians, but the United Nations official data doesn't corroborate the words of the Russian General. The last UN datasheet from May 2005, called "Ranking of Military and Civilian Police Contributions to UN Operations", puts Russia not in first place, but… in thirty-first. It is all in the numbers: only 326 Russians are currently serving in the ranks of the UN "blue helmets". While Pakistan is in first place, with 9,880 soldiers, Bangladesh is second with 7,932 and India, third, with 6,001 peacekeepers. Another datasheet - "Monthly Summary of Contributions" shows that out of 326 so-called UN "blue helmeted" Russians, 112 are civil police officers, 114 military observers and 100 troopers.
In checking the UN database one may find that from 1973 to 1998, the USSR - Russia participated in eleven out of 48 UN peacekeeping operations. More than 770 Russian UN military observers, and some 18.000 soldiers and officers have served under the UN flag. It's an impressive number, but from independent Ukraine more then 20.000 soldiers participated from 1992 until 2004 in UN peacekeeping missions.
Is there any sphere where Russians are really in first place? Well, Russian air carriers earned $140 million through airlifting personnel and cargoes for United Nations peacekeeping missions in 2004, which has made Russia a leading provider of freight transportation services for the UN.
Therefore, is Anatoly Mazurkevich, chief of the Russian Defense Ministry's Main International Cooperation Directorate lying? Not exactly. The Russian experts simply count the Operational Group of Russian Forces in Transdnestria (Republic of Pridnestrovie) and the CIS peacekeeping force in Abkhazia as peacekeeping forces of the UN.
The Operational Group of Russian Forces in Transdnestria - the separatist, non-recognized Moldavian Republic, leadership of which is supported by the Russian government, is directly subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Defense. The analysts in the West consider that this command arrangement probably derives more from political than military concerns.
The force consists of the remnants of the 14-th Army - about 1.500 soldiers, which are not only providing peacekeeping monitoring (read protecting the separatist republic), but also are guarding huge stores of Russian armaments, left in the area after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russians are removing this stock very slowly, because it gives them a perfect pretext to keep their forces in the area.
Among the current operations of the UN, the Operational Group of Russian Forces in Transdnestria is not listed. But still Russians count it as a part of the UN peacekeeping forces!
A similar or even worse situation is happening with the forces in Abkhazia - another separatist republic, which broke of from Georgia. Russia secretly supported this separation because it weakened Georgia, and Tbilisi was then compelled to enter the CIS. That step prompted Russia to send military peacekeepers to support government forces, which saved Georgia's president Eduard Shevardnadze from a large-scale insurrection and further fragmentation of the country. The terms of the so-called rescue included a Georgian-Russian friendship treaty calling for the establishment of Russian military bases in Georgia to be used by the Group of Russian Forces in the Transcaucasus (Gruppa Rossiyskikh Voisk V Zakavkazie, GRVZ).
To maintain the peace on the Abkhaz-Georgian border, the CISPKF (Commonwealth of Independent States peacekeeping forces) was established in 1994, when Russia was seen by the western countries as a partner in the new world order, and the presence of a Russian Peacekeeping Force in Abkhazia under the umbrella of the CIS was valued as a healthy and useful thing. However, later western analysts noted that this force, consisting of only Russian military units, is, in reality, a tool of Russian policy in Transcaucasus. Abkhazia's Russian minority forms the third largest nation in the territory and the Russians, no doubt, feel an interest in maintaining the status quo. The number of Russian "peacekeeping" guardians of Abkhazia is reaching 3000.
And, surprisingly, CISPKF is also not listed in the UN database of current operations. The UN mission in the area - the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), is monitoring implementation of the agreements between Georgia and Abkhazia, having the additional headache of observing the operations of the CISPKF. Sometimes they even cooperate. The mandate of the CISPKF ended in 2003, but the forces are still there, even without Georgian approval.
However, even after adding up all these forces, it seems that the Russians don't come ahead of Pakistan into first place among peacekeepers. Well, they do in one respect, because Russia counts its Group of Forces in the Transcaucasus as peacekeepers also. Most of the units in CISPKF come from GRVZ, and there is a plan to reinforce the peacekeeper ranks by Russian soldiers from the disputed Russian bases, which are going to be removed from Georgian soil. The old Russian base in Gudaut (Abkhazia), which was kept to accommodate the CISPKR, is capable of receiving an additional brigade - 5000 soldiers, and Abkhaz leaders will be more than happy to see them there. Thus, Russians will keep their presence in the area, as part of their pressure on Georgia, which is "dangerously" getting closer to the USA.
The announcement of General Anatoly Mazurkevich was not an erroneous report. It is simply a tactic used to revive the traditional Soviet method of hiding its military activity behind loud words, such as "Peacekeeping", while striving to reach other, sometimes opposite, goals.
Related item:
The Kremlin Versus Sovereign Georgia
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