Kuban Cossacks - Modern Kuban Cossacks

Modern Kuban Cossacks

Following the war, the Cossack regiments, along with remaining cavalry were disbanded and removed from the Soviet armed forces as they were thought to be obsolete.

Starting in the late 1980s, there were renewed efforts to revive Cossack traditions which went to great lengths; in 1990, the Host was once again recognised by the Supreme Ataman of the All-Great Don Host (Всевеликое Войско Донское). With the help of the governor of Krasnodar Kray Alexander Tkachev, the host has become an integral part of the Kuban life, there are joint combat training operations with the Russian Army, policing of the rural areas with the Militsiya, preparation of local youth for the draft service. Not only is their aid in military, during the floods in 2004 of the Taman Peninsula they provided men and equipment for relief missions. Today, the host numbers 25 thousand men and has its own distinct forces: a whole regiment of the 7th 'Cherkassy' Guards Air-Assault Division (the 108th "Kuban Cossack' Guards Airborne Regiment) in the Russian VDV; 205th Motorised Rifle Brigade, within the North Caucasus Military District in the Russian Ground Forces, in addition to border guards.

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.

According to human rights reports from the 1990s, the Cossacks regularly harassed non-Russians, such as Armenians and Chechens, living in southern Russia.

On August 2, 2012, Governor of the Krasnodar Krai, Alexander Tkachyov announced a controversial plan to deploy a paramilitary force of unarmed, uniformed 1,000 Kuban Cossacks in the region to help police patrol, charged with preventing an influx of he described as "illegal immigration" from the neighboring Caucasian republics.