The Regional Conflicts Task Force first met in 1982. It was led by Evgeny Primakov on the Soviet side and Harold Saunders on the American until Primakov left to take a senior position under Gorbachev. His place was taken by Gennadi Chufrin, a scholar from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Task Force met regularly until 2001, then worked directly on conflicts in Tajikistan and over Nagorno-Karabakh.