Over 100 Russian peacekeepers killed in the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian conflict zones for the last 15 years – Sergei Ivanov

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Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov doubts that peacekeeping forces in Lebanon will be able to carry out one of their main functions – disarming Hezbollah. The minister said this in his report on the peacekeeping activities of the Russian Federation that he made in the Federation Council Oct 27. He reminded that Russia has dispatched to Lebanon a special bridge construction battalion that is supposed to reconstruct a number of structures destroyed during the Lebanese-Israeli conflict. Russian military were sent to Lebanon based on bilateral agreements, not as part of the international peacekeeping forces, Ivanov emphasized. “We are not going to bear any responsibility for what happened in Lebanon. This is an outrage, and we have nothing to do with it,” said the minister.

According to Ivanov, the situation in the south of Lebanon is unstable due to many unexploded cluster bombs. Ivanov said also that until now, the peacekeeping contingent has not yet been manned completely. Instead of the 15,000 staff promised by heads of western states it is now manned by 8,000.

According to Sergei Ivanov, participation in peacekeeping contingents in the CIS territory is Russia’s absolute priority. “We have our fundamental interests there, all the rest is rather secondary,” he says. Ivanov reminded that Russia for the last 15 years has participated in four missions in the post-Soviet space: in 2000, a mission in Tajikistan was successfully completed, and now Russian peacekeepers work in Transdnestr (about 400 staff) and the zones of Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhazian conflicts (up to 600 and 2,000 staff, respectively). The minister said to senators that they must be aware of conditions in which the peacekeepers in Transcaucasia work. To illustrate the situation, the minister brought up figures: for the 15 years, over 100 peacekeepers were killed in the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian conflict zones.