On the day Azerbaijan’s military sliced through the defenses of an ethnic Armenian redoubt last week, American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division had just finished a training mission in nearby Armenia, a longtime ally of Russia that has been trying to reduce its near-total dependence on Moscow for its security.
The Americans unfurled a banner made up of the flags of the United States and Armenia, posed for photographs — and then left the country.
At the same time, nearly 2,000 Russian “peacekeepers” were dealing with the mayhem unleashed by their earlier failure to keep the peace in the contested area, Nagorno-Karabakh, recognized internationally as being part of Azerbaijan.
The timing of the U.S. soldiers’ rapid exit at the end of their training work — carried out under the intimidating name Eagle Partner but involving only 85 soldiers — had been scheduled for months.
Persons:
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Organizations:
101st Airborne Division
Locations:
Armenia, Russia, Moscow, United States, Russian, Nagorno, Karabakh, Azerbaijan