About 22,000 Armenians were granted Russian citizenship in the first half of this year, according to Russian immigration authorities.
Senior government officials from Armenia and Azerbaijan began on Wednesday a new round of Russian-mediated negotiations on restoring economic links between their countries.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Friday accused Iran and Armenia of using Azerbaijani territory for drug trafficking, prompting swift rebuttals from both neighbors.
Iran strongly opposes any redrawing of borders in the South Caucasus, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday.
Russia expressed readiness on Thursday to help Armenia and Turkey normalize their relations, saying that would boost peace and stability in the region.
Armenia’s new Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan accused Azerbaijan of not fully complying with a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh as he met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday.
Supplying weapons to other countries is Moscow’s sovereign right, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday when asked to comment on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s call to stop arming Armenia.
Russia will take steps to ensure its national security if Turkey opens a military base in Armenia, the Kremlin said on Friday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated on Wednesday that international mediators should not rush to broker an Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.
A senior pro-government lawmaker insisted on Friday that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has not secretly agreed to cede any Armenian territory to Azerbaijan as part of a demarcation of the border between the two states proposed by Russia.
Russia offered on Wednesday to help Armenia and Azerbaijan demarcate their border some portions of which have been the scene of a military standoff over the past week.
Russia said on Tuesday that it keeps trying to ease tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan as troops from the two South Caucasus countries remained locked in a border standoff threatening to reignite the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts the implementation of Russian-brokered agreements to stop the war in Nagorno-Karabakh during separate talks held in Moscow late on Thursday.
In separate phone calls, Russian President Vladimir Putin has again discussed with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan the implementation of a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian effectively retracted on Monday his claim that the Armenian army’s most advanced Russian-made missiles seriously malfunctioned during the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russian pro-government lawmakers and pundits strongly condemned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Wednesday for implying that Armenia's most advanced Russian-made missiles proved useless during the recent war with Azerbaijan.
The status of Nagorno-Karabakh remains unresolved and it must be a subject of future Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
The parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must respect the Russian-brokered agreement to stop the Armenian-Azerbaijani war and not try to change the status quo, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
Russia is satisfied with Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s compliance with a Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh on November 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday praised Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for agreeing to the “painful” ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh and said Russia and its ex-Soviet allies should help him implement the Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement brokered by Moscow.
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