I m not saying that the pogroms were not an important factor but they were not a decisive factor The facts speak for themselves Why did the Soviet authorities have to bring the troops from outside while they had more than enough forces within the city to restore law and order And why all those troops took no measures to stop riots while they could as early as 13 January It appears that they waited until the situation got as bad as possible to have a reason to ban the opposition And Yazov himself explained why the troops stormed Baku he said they did it to prevent opposition from coming to power He was a soldier not a politician and he openly admitted the purpose of the military action