NATO Northern Distribution Network: When Russia Helped NATO

In 2008, Russia agreed to let NATO transport weapons and personnel across its territory to support the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The transit routes, which went through Russia and post-Soviet Central Asia, provided an alternative to Pakistan. Known as the Northern Distribution Network, the routes came to account for 40 percent of all ISAF-bound supplies.

NATO and Russian Cooperation

NATO hardware traveled between Afghanistan and Georgia, Afghanistan and Russia (Vladivostok), or Afghanistan and the Baltic states (through Russia).

A fair amount of French hardware taken out of Afghanistan during the French withdrawal of 2012 transited through those roads.

End of Transit Agreement

After the deterioration of Western-Russian relations over Ukraine in 2014, NATO let its transit agreement with Russia lapse later that year. The Russian government followed suit by formally cutting off the NATO transit in 2015.

-RBM.