After signing a cease-fire deal that ended the war in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in November, Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan reached an agreement in January to reopen transport links through their countries. They agreed to unblock Soviet-era rail lines that had been disrupted after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted in the late 1980s. Trade throughout the region became even more difficult following the war in Abkhazia in 1992-93, when rail routes between Russia and Georgia were severed. Though the Georgian Military Highway connects Russia with Georgia (as well as Armenia through connecting highways), it’s regularly closed due to poor weather conditions.