Russia says it’s working with both Armenia and Azerbaijan as tensions rise
2023.09.07 08:29
© Reuters. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Union summit in Moscow, Russia May 25, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool vi
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday it was working with both Armenia and Azerbaijan in its role as a security guarantor in the south Caucasus, after Armenia said Azerbaijan was concentrating forces near the border between the two countries.
Armenian state news agency Armenpress cited Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as saying Azerbaijan was conducting an “ongoing military buildup along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border”.
Reuters could not independently verify the alleged build-up.
Asked about Pashinyan’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Armenia’s plan – announced on Wednesday – to host a joint exercise involving 85 U.S. soldiers next week was unhelpful.
“In this situation, holding such exercises does not contribute to stabilising the situation in any case and strengthening the atmosphere of mutual trust in the region,” Peskov said.
“But Russia continues to fulfil its functions as a guarantor of security, Russia continues scrupulous, consistent and constructive work with both Yerevan and Baku.”
Russia has maintained peacekeepers in the region since a 2020 war in which Azerbaijan seized back significant amounts of territory it had lost to Armenian forces in the 1990s after the break-up of the Soviet Union.
