Depending upon its geopolitical location, Azerbaijani territories have been not only a centre of attraction for great powers, but also displayed a kind of battlefield for clash of conflicts among these powers. Therefore, the autochthon Turkish people under Turkish Khanates in the territories had to deal with the most tragic consequences of that the tension risen in the South Caucasus in the 18th century, when the Russian Empire engaged in the struggle between the Ottoman-Safavid/Afshar/Qajar Iranian states since 16th century. The Turkish khanates were the first political entities to confront the Russian armies in the South Caucasus. Consequently, the first to inaugurate Russia’s urgent need for expansion in terms of a conscious “urge to the sea,” a desire for “warm water ports,” Emperor Peter the 1st (the Great) succeeded in Russia’s domination over the Azerbaijani lands. However, Russia’s first domination over the territories was superficial and also not permanent, the region retained its permanent importance among the Russia’s long term foreign policy goals, until the most favourable conditions emerged. As a matter of fact, the permanent dominance of the Russian Empire in the region realised with the legal texts (The Treaties of Gulistan (1813) and Turkmenchay (1828) signed by the parties, soon after Russia’s decisively intervention on the South Caucasus, concluded with annexation of Georgian lands (namely The Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti) in 1801, were directly related the political future of the Turkish khanates. After that the treaties had been signed, the strategies Peterburg government adopted to extend its military dominance over the Turkish khanates to political, administrative, financial and cultural areas, are subsequently transformed into the root causes of the current problems that the Republic of Azerbaijan challenged by. The Karabakh Conflict is one of the most important problems among those. The foundation of an artificial Armenia on Turkish territory and the change in the demographic structure of the region against the Turks over the years, as a result of the regional strategies that Russia initiated in Tzarist era, and somehow continued in Soviet period are the most important factors made Karabakh, one of the crises, disrupting the regional stability. Within the framework of these historical reasons and contexts, this paper, it is planned to examine the underlying reasons of the Karabakh issue and Russia’s policies towards the region in both the imperial and Soviet Union eras.