During his meeting with Nikol Pashinyan, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the situation around Karabakh remains a sensitive topic.
“Of course, the most sensitive issue to date – we understand this, we often discuss this – is everything related to Karabakh,” Putin said during the talks.
“It is obvious that after the recognition of Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan in Prague in 2022, it would be absolutely inappropriate for the CSTO to interfere in this process, which has acquired an intra-Azerbaijani hue,” he noted.
He noted that thanks to the efforts of Pashinyan and Aliyev, relations between Yerevan and Baku have stabilized, and the US president has played an active role in this matter.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded to this, emphasizing that this occurred only after the top leadership of the Russian Federation publicly announced the recognition of Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan twice.
“As for Karabakh, we have discussed it many times, mainly in a working format. Yes, we have recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, but we did so only after the top leadership of the Russian Federation publicly announced it twice. And you remember, we have repeatedly spoken about this,” the Prime Minister said.
He also touched upon Putin’s reference to the CSTO.
“And we have never hidden our problems with the CSTO, because in 2022, we had a specific situation, and the CSTO mechanisms should have worked, but they did not. And this, of course, led to the current situation, our relations with the CSTO,” Pashinyan added.
