II. Conflicts in the post-Soviet space: recent developments

Chapter:

4. European security

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2017

Author(s):

Ian Anthony

Current conflicts in the post-Soviet space emerged in the last years of the Soviet Union and the years that followed its demise.¹ The relatively recent conflict in Ukraine has brought another perspective to those conflicts. Although these conflicts are often referred to as ‘frozen’, the past 10 years have shown that armed violence has continued and sometimes escalated.² The 2008 Russia–Georgia war and subsequent developments in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the intensification of fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh in 2016, and a new potentially protracted conflict in eastern Ukraine indicate that conflicts around sovereignty, ethnicity and borders in the post-Soviet space are far from over. Within a current context of increasing geopolitical rivalry between Russia and the West, any future escalation of armed violence around them bears significant risks for both the post-Soviet space and the neighbouring regions.