Russia had long since established forces in the region. The Persian Cossack Brigade and a small contingent of the Russian Caucasus Army under the Armenian General Tovmas Nazarbekian was stationed there. The Cossack Brigade consisted of eight squadrons, a small battalion of infantry and a horse battery of six Krupp guns; their total strength did not exceed 2,000. Besides this force, in 1912 Russia obtained the formal consent of the Persian government to the formation of a similar Cossack Brigade at Tabriz under Russian officers. The consent of the government was given as a condition for the withdrawal of Russian troops in Iranian Azerbaijan which, at the onset of the Great War, Russia did not. The Russians also moved one detachment of Armenian volunteer units under the command of Andranik Ozanian to this region.