Ten Russian soldiers have been killed in the last three weeks in Tajikistan, the volatile Central Asian republic where Russia maintains 20,000 troops to prop up the government against rebels backed by Islamic fundamentalists in neighboring Afghanistan. The latest Russian casualty, announced Wednesday, was a lieutenant in Russia's 201st Motorized Division killed by unknown assailants at a road checkpoint late Tuesday. Also shot and killed Wednesday was a Tajikistan deputy defense minister. In Moscow, it is widely believed that Tajik rebels, operating from bases across the border in Afghanistan, carried out this and other assaults on Russian troops. The rebels lost out in a 1992 civil war to ex-Communist functionaries who now rule, with Russian backing. The string of soldiers' deaths has spawned fears of Russian re-involvement in an area of the world that proved disastrous for Soviet troops in the 1980s. More generally, the deaths have sparked some soul-searching about Russia's role in the former Soviet Union, or the "near abroad." "One can hardly envy Moscow increasingly getting stuck in the quagmire of other people's wars," commented the liberal Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta recently. Former Soviet troops, now under Russian command, are stationed in nearly every former republic and have been involved in armed conflicts in several. The Russian government, with no place for these troops at home, has sought to persuade the West to let some operate as UN peacekeeping forces. Wary about Russia's intentions, Western powers have resisted the idea. Russian troops Wednesday began setting up peacekeeping operations in Abkhazia, a breakaway region of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, at Georgia's request. Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze has said the Russian presence, while distasteful for a newly independent country, is necessary to bring stability. The Georgian government had sought to bring UN peacekeepers to the region but the idea was rejected by the United Nations.