Russian President Vladimir Putin personally played a decisive role in how it became possible to end the Nagorno-Karabakh war in November 2020 and how several tripartite—Armenian-Azerbaijani-Russian—documents were agreed at the highest level, which defined the key parameters of the settlement, including the issues of borders delimitation, unblocking regional trade and transport routes, and signing a peace treaty. This was announced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the press conference following the results of participation in UN Security Council events.

He noted that relevant commissions have been created at the level of the deputy prime ministers of the three countries, and they deal with the economic side of the issue.

"Recently, we saw that after making all these agreements, the Western partners decided that it is wrong somewhere that Russia is succeeding in making progress in this direction, and they began to lure the Armenians and Azerbaijanis to Brussels, then Paris, then Washington, then Prague. By the way, in 2022, [Armenian] Prime Minister Pashinyan signed a document in Prague by which he recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within the borders of 1991. This means that the NKAO [(Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region)], as Karabakh was called at that time, is an inseparable part of Azerbaijan," Lavrov said.

According to him, this was a surprise for Russia.

"This was a surprise for us, as before this, various options for the final solution of the Karabakh status issue were being discussed. The prime minister of Armenia did that on his own. After that, the status matter, and what Karabakh is, is closed," said the Russian FM.

25 January 2024 / 10:32