“Russia has never given up its role as an ‘honest broker’ in the negotiation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Sergei Kopyrkin, the Russian ambassador in Yerevan, said in an interview published on Thursday.
Speaking to a publication affiliated with the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Kopyrkin pointed to Putin’s latest contacts with the leaders of the two South Caucasus states.
Putin proposed renewed Russian mediation of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks during an August 18-19 visit to Baku. He discussed the proposal with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev by phone in the following days.
Pashinian did not sound enthusiastic about Putin’s initiative during an August 31 news conference in Yerevan. He said he told the Russian leader that Baku and Yerevan now prefer to negotiate without third-party mediation.
Kopyrkin indicated that Moscow is ready to assist the two sides in this format as well.
“In line with the tripartite agreements reached [by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia in 2020-22,] Moscow has successfully provided a platform for negotiations on the draft peace treaty,” he said. “I will emphasize again that we are ready to do this in the future as well. We guarantee the creation of the most comfortable conditions for the work of both delegations in the bilateral format preferred by them.”
“Russia has the necessary experience, materials (including cartographic ones) and appropriate authority in the region to achieve a positive result. Moreover, unlike the ‘collective West,’ we do not consider the South Caucasus as a ‘confrontation zone’ with anyone,” added the envoy.
Pashinian’s government essentially rejected similar Russian initiatives earlier this year amid its mounting tensions with Moscow. It has been far more open to peace talks with Baku mediated or arranged by Western powers.