Page "Kuban Cossacks" Paragraph 38

The Cossacks have actively participated in some of the more abrupt political developments following the dissolution of the Soviet Union: South Ossetia, Crimea, Kosovo, Transnistria and Abkhazia.

The latter conflict was in particular special for the Kuban Cossacks, initially a number of Cossacks fled from the de-Cossackization repressions of the 1920s and assimilated with the Abkhaz people.

Before the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict there was a strong movement of creating an Abkhaz-Kuban Host among the descendants.

When the civil war broke out, 1500 Kuban Cossack volunteers from Russia came to aid the Abkhaz side.

One of the notable groups was the 1st sotnia under the command of Ataman Nikolay Pusko which reportedly completely destroyed a Ukrainian volunteer group fighting on the Georgian side and then went on to be the first to enter Sukhumi in 1993.

Since then, a detachment of Kuban Cossacks continue to inhabit Abkhazia, and their presence continues to influence the Georgian-Russian relations.