Lavrov insisted that it would not call into question Armenian sovereignty over the transport links sought by Baku.
“They don’t want Russian border guards to stand there, even though this was written down and signed by Prime Minister [Nikol] Pashinian,” he told a news conference. “He doesn’t want neutral border and customs control. [They want to do that] only by themselves, and that contradicts what was agreed upon.”
Lavrov referred to the Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Paragraph 9 of that agreement stipulates that Russian border guards stationed in Armenia will “control” the movement of people, vehicles and goods between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan. Armenian officials say this only allows them to “monitor” the commercial traffic, rather than escort it, let alone be involved in border controls.
Pashinian reiterated that stance on January 13 when he reacted to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest demands that people and cargo be allowed to move “without any checks.” The premier again argued that the 2020 truce accord does not commit Armenia to opening any extraterritorial corridors.
The main purpose of the accord cited by Lavrov was to stop fighting in Karabakh and prevent new hostilities. The deal also led to the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh. The peacekeepers did not intervene when the Azerbaijani army went on the offensive on September 19, forcing Karabakh’s practically entire population to flee to Armenia.
Pashinian said that the Azerbaijani offensive and Russia’s failure to prevent or thwart it means that Baku and Moscow effectively scrapped the 2020 deal. “There is no way that document can no longer be valid for two parties [that signed it] but continue to be valid for the third party,” he said.
Russia has repeatedly defended its peacekeepers and claimed that Pashinian himself sealed the fate of Karabakh with his decision to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over the region recommended by Western powers. Lavrov repeated those claims during the press conference in Moscow. He said the West is also behind Yerevan’s alleged failure to comply with the agreement on the transports links for Nakhichevan.
On Wednesday, one of Lavrov’s deputies, Mikhail Galuzin, urged Yerevan to agree to resume Russian-mediated negotiations with Baku. Pashinian’s government has preferred Western mediation in recent months.
Russian-Armenian relations have steadily deteriorated since the 2020 war, with Yerevan accusing Moscow of not honoring security commitments to its longtime regional ally. Azerbaijan’s recapture of Karabakh only added to those tensions.
Lavrov said late last month that Armenia is reorienting its foreign policy towards the West at the expense of its alliance with Russia. He warned that the South Caucasus country cannot successfully confront its grave security challenges with the help of the United States and the European Union.