In the 1915 tripartite Kyakhta Agreement, the Russian Empire (which had strategic interests in Mongolian independence but did not want to completely alienate China), the Republic of China and the Bogd Khanate of Mongolia agreed that Outer Mongolia was autonomous under Chinese suzerainty. However, in the following years Russian influence in Asia waned due to the First World War and, later, the October Revolution. Since 1918, Outer Mongolia was threatened by the Russian Civil War, and in summer 1918 asked for Chinese military assistance, which led to the deployment of a small force to Urga. Grigory Semyonov led the Buryats and Inner Mongols in spearheading a plan to create a pan-Mongol state. Meanwhile, some Mongol aristocrats had become more and more dissatisfied with their marginalization at the hands of the theocratic Lamaist government, and, also provoked by the threat of the Outer Mongolia's independence from the pan-Mongolist movement of Grigory Semyonov in Siberia, were ready to accept Chinese rule by 1919. According to an Associated Press dispatch, some Mongol chieftains signed a petition asking China to retake administration of Mongolia and end Outer Mongolia's autonomy. Since they opposed the Bogd Khan and his clerics, Mongol nobles agreed to abolish Mongol autonomy and reunite with China under an agreement with 63 stipulations signed with Chen Yi () in August–September 1919. The pan-Mongolist initiative of Grigory Semyonov led by Buryats and Inner Mongols was rejected by the Khalkha Mongol nobles of Urga, so the Khalkha nobles instead assured the Chinese under Chen Yi that they were against it. The prospect of ending Mongol autonomy and having Chinese troops stationed in Niialel Khuree, Altanbulag, Uliyasutai, and Khovd was permitted by the Mongolian government in response to the Japanese-backed Buryatia pan-Mongol movement.