The only major impediments to a formal rupture were Siyad's concern to avoid the potential destabilization of his regime which an abrupt breach might encourage, and a natural reluctance to terminate his main source of arms supplies before reliable alternative arrangements had been secured. There was also perhaps the hope that Russia might, under appropriate pressures or blandishments, still somehow wring from Mengistu the necessary concessions to Somali nationalism in the Ogaden. No progress in this direction was achieved, however, and on 13 November the predictable breach with Russia was announced in Mogadishu.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 567