During an April 17 press briefing in Washington, Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, was asked by a reporter to comment on reports that “Russians have started moving their forces out of Azerbaijan and to be deployed in Ukraine” as well as on the implications of the move for the South Caucasus and beyond.
Patel reminded that the United States was not party to the negotiated trilateral arrangement that ended the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 and established Russian troops in that region.
“Frankly, we’ve not seen anything to indicate that Russia’s military was contributing to a more peaceful and stable South Caucasus region, and the events in Nagorno-Karabakh over the course of this past fall are pretty indicative of that point, and it’s another highlight or example of how Russia is not a trustworthy ally or partner,” he said.
“Beyond that, we strongly support efforts by Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach a durable and dignified peace, and we stand ready to continue to help facilitate this process,” the Department of State official added.
Moscow and Baku confirmed on Wednesday the start of the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Nagorno-Karabakh as footage showing Russian soldiers embarking first on military trucks and then on a train appeared online.
Hikmet Hajiyev, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s top foreign policy aide, confirmed to local media that “the decision on the early withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers was made by the leaders of both countries.”
“The process has already begun. The defense ministries of Azerbaijan and Russia are taking necessary steps to implement this decision,” he added.
Citing sources at the Ministry of Defense of Turkey, Azerbaijan’s APA news agency reported today that the joint Russian-Turkish monitoring center set up in Agdam in January 2021 will also cease its activities.
Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh in accordance with a trilateral agreement between Moscow, Baku and Yerevan that put an end to a six-week war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the region in November 2020.
Azerbaijan had regained control over all seven districts around Nagorno-Karabakh as well as captured chunks of the ethnic Armenian-populated region proper in that war.
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers were deployed in the region for a period of five years with the possibility of further extending their stay to protect the local Armenian population as well as a vital corridor connecting the region with Armenia.
Azerbaijan, however, established its presence on the road known as the Lachin Corridor in late 2022 and effectively took it under its own control the following year, imposing a 10-month-long blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians.
Russian peacekeepers’ continued presence in the region became a moot point after more than 100,000 Armenians, virtually the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh, left their homes and moved to Armenia following Azerbaijan’s one-day military operation in the region last September.
Yerevan has blamed the Russian peacekeepers for failing to defend the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russia, for its part, has blamed Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan at negotiations mediated by Western powers, a claim repeatedly dismissed by Armenian officials.
Grigori Karasin, head of the international affairs committee at the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia’s Federal Assembly, reiterated on Wednesday Moscow’s position that the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Karabakh became a “logical consequence” of Pashinian’s decision.
Baku has all along insisted that Karabakh is an Azerbaijani territory where Russian peacekeepers are stationed only “temporarily.”
The announcement of the Russian withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh a year and a half ahead of schedule came as a surprise to some observers considering that only a few days ago officials in Baku were talking about plans for Russian peacekeepers to be involved in demining activities in “de-occupied territories of Azerbaijan.”
Official Yerevan did not immediately comment on the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Nagorno-Karabakh where only about a dozen ethnic Armenians remain.
Some representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh’s former ethnic Armenian authorities, however, have expressed their concerns about the move.
Artak Beglarian, a Yerevan-based former state minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, said that along with the recent announcement by the International Committee of the Red Cross about the relocation of its office from Stepanakert to Barda, the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeepers meant an end to “even the limited international presence” in the region.