Meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, Putin stressed that Moscow wants to maintain its “historical involvement in the situation in the South Caucasus” and Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, in particular, despite the widening war with Ukraine.
“If there is something we can do to pave the way for the signing of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the delimitation, demarcation of the border, unblocking, as we have discussed with you many times, relevant areas in logistics and the economy, we would be very happy about that,” he told Aliyev in his opening remarks.
“Of course, after my visit to Azerbaijan, I will contact Prime Minister [Nikol] Pashinian and tell him about the results of our negotiations,” added Putin.
Russia has repeatedly offered to resume its mediation of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks over the past year, including in the aftermath of last month’s meeting of the foreign ministers of the two South Caucasus states hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Armenia has essentially rejected these initiatives, underlining rising tensions in Russian-Armenian relations and its ongoing drift to the West.
“The Armenian authorities prefer to hold peace negotiations either without mediators or under the aegis of Western bodies,” said Armen Baghdasarian, an Armenian political analyst. They are therefore bound to “politely decline” Putin’s offer as well, he said.
The authorities in Yerevan did not immediately react to Putin’s latest comments. Gagik Melkonian, an outspoken lawmaker representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, dismissed them. He claimed that the Russian leader travelled to Baku discuss further anti-Armenian moves with Aliyev.
“They handed over Karabakh to Baku and are now reminding that Baku is in debt to them for that,” Melkonian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “So I personally don’t expect anything good from that [Baku] meeting.”
Putin helped to stop the 2020 war in Karabakh by brokering a ceasefire agreement reached by Aliyev and Pashinian. Moscow remained the main international mediator of Armenian-Azerbaijani talks held in the next two years. Its deepening rift with Pashinian’s government has all but ended the Russian mediation of the negotiating process.
Unlike Yerevan, Baku has reacted positively to the Russian initiatives. Aliyev said on Monday that he is “very satisfied” with the current state of Russian-Azerbaijani relations.