Part V Case Studies, 45 Russian Forces in the Former USSR and Beyond

Subject(s):

Military assistance — Military matters

This chapter discusses legal grounds for, and actual deployments of, Russian forces outside of the Russian territory. Such deployments mostly continued in the former Soviet Union, with the exception of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, from which forces had been withdrawn by and large by 31 August 1994. The only remaining Russian-operated installation in the Baltics, the early-warning radar and related facilities off the Latvian town of Skrunda, were decommissioned four years later. Other instances of Russian forces stationed outside the former USSR included a signals intelligence facility at Lourdes, Cuba, and the Cam Ranh navy and air base in Vietnam. The use of both was discontinued in 2002.