Russia's position on Karabakh crosses out Minsk Group's negotiation format

In his statement following the talks with Armenia, the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has ignored the issue of resuming the work of the OSCE Minsk Group, because Russia expects to resolve the Karabakh issue in a trilateral format, Armenian political analysts told the "Caucasian Knot".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 18, Armenian authorities confirmed their readiness to resume negotiations on Karabakh with the participation of officials of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe).

Sergey Lavrov, the head of the Russian MFA, following the talks with his Armenian colleague, Ararat Mirzoyan, called on Yerevan and Baku to diminish their hostile rhetoric in order to create "conditions for a final, full-fledged settlement."

"Now I proceed from the fact that we are not talking about the resumption of the process; we are talking about the realization of what has already been signed," the TASS quotes Mr Lavrov as saying on August 31.

Sergey Lavrov's statement implies no resumption of the work of the OSCE Minsk Group, since the head of the Russian MFA talks about the enforcement of the trilateral agreements of November 9, 2020, Naira Airumyan, a political observer, has noted.

In her opinion, Moscow will do everything so that the Karabakh issue, in principle, is not discussed at the level of international organizations.

Andrias Gukasyan, a political analyst, is also treating Mr Lavrov's statement as Russia's refusal to support the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group and the mediating countries. "Lavrov, in fact, calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to implement the plan that follows from the trilateral agreement," Mr Gukasyan told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 3, 2021 at 09:29 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.