During the “Valdai” conference taking place in Sochi, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke about the Karabakh conflict and made a number of noteworthy statements.
The head of the foreign policy department of the country that co-chairs the OSCE Minsk Group stated, in particular, that dialogue has not yet, in essence, resumed, but that there are no risks of the resumption of military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh — at least Lavrov does not see any.
Russia, which, according to the Foreign Minister, has no differences with the other co-chair countries of the Minsk Group — France and the United States — on the Karabakh issue, is doing everything to ensure that military operations do not take place in Karabakh.
“In the recent period, the situation on the line of contact has been fairly calm, incidents are few and they are not very major,” said Lavrov, while also stating that there is no progress in the negotiations either.
“I can say that the current situation is calmer than a year ago, but the political process is stalled, and it has not been possible to pull it out of that state,” said Russia’s Foreign Minister.
Sergei Lavrov also complained that the parties make serious statements that do not contribute to the formation of a favourable atmosphere for the political process. The head of Russia’s foreign policy department recalled, in particular, Pashinyan’s well-known statement, “Artsakh is Armenia”:
“The parties make statements, quite serious ones, among which words have been heard that ‘Karabakh is Armenia’, just as from Tirana the Prime Minister of Albania had declared, ‘Kosovo is Albania’. Such statements, of course, do not contribute to the formation of an appropriate atmosphere for resuming the political process,” said Russia’s Foreign Minister in Sochi.
Incidentally, Kosovo’s independence from Serbia has ultimately been recognised by almost all Western countries.
