A new commander has been appointed to the Russian peacekeeping contingent in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The new commander is Lieutenant General Gennady Anashkin.
It should be noted that Rustam Muradov was the first commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh and he recently completed his mission. Shortly afterwards, Major General Mikhail Kosobokov was appointed to the post.
Anashkin was born in 1968 in Kuibyshev (now Samara) and served in the military in Germany. He graduated from Ryazan Higher Military Command School. From 1998 he served in the 116th Airborne Battalion and was a company leader. He served in the former Yugoslavia from December 1999 to August 2000 and was the commander of a landing battalion in the peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was on a business trip to Chechnya during the First and Second Chechen Wars. From June 2007, he was the commander of the 104th Guards Airborne Regiment, and in 2008 he took part in military operations in separatist South Ossetia. By the decree of the President of Russia in 2008, Anashkin was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation and was presented the Golden Star medal for bravery and heroism during his military service. At the end of 2008, the regiment under his command was recognised as the best regiment in the Russian Air Force. From July 2017, he was Deputy Commander of the Southern Military District Guard.
Former peacekeeping commander in Karabakh, Major General Kosobokov, is expected to be promoted.
According to the Azerbaijani newspaper Musavat, “on September 17, the Russian Defence Ministry, citing the Armenian side, reported that the Azerbaijani Army had allegedly violated the ceasefire and wounded two Armenian militants in the direction of Shusha. The incident was investigated with the joint participation of representatives of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry and the leadership of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation. As a result, it was determined that our units did not open fire on the mentioned date and in the indicated direction. It is not clear that the information investigated with the participation of both sides was later presented in a completely different form,” said a spokesman for the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry. “Should the information investigated with the participation of the party be presented in a completely different form in the official statement of the Russian Defence Ministry?” the spokesperson also stated.
Azerbaijani political expert Ahmad Alili said, "the recent appointment of major-general Anashkin as the head of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh reveals a few interesting moments. The most interesting is that the previous one - Kosobokov - was not favoured by Baku. Hence, he could keep his position for two weeks and a few additional days. Can Russia repeat the Georgian and Ukrainian scenarios in Karabakh also?... It shows, Moscow will attempt to gain more power in the region. Still, the specific elements of Russian-Azerbaijani relations will help Baku and Moscow to find additional scenarios to work on together."
