Russia will not intervene in the Karabakh war
08 October 2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin has personally commented on this situation for the first time since the Azerbaijani army launched a counteroffensive on September 27. In an interview with Russia-24 magazine Pavel Zarubin, Putin, who turns 68 today, called the situation a tragedy: “This is a tragedy. We are very worried because Azerbaijan, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh are regions inhabited by people who are not strangers to us.” Putin has noted that about 2 million Azerbaijanis and more than 2 million Armenians live in Russia. “Many Russian citizens maintain close friendship and even family relations with both republics. Of course, this is a great tragedy, people are dying, there are heavy losses on both sides. We hope this conflict will end soon. If the conflict is not fully resolved - it seems that there is still a long way to go - we are still calling for a ceasefire and this must be done as soon as possible. ”-he said. Putin emphasize that there was no military action on the territory of Armenia. “As you know, Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, according to which we have certain obligations to Armenia. Military actions, unfortunately, continue, but they are not being conducted on the territory of Armenia. As for the fulfillment by Russia of its treaty obligations, we have always fulfilled, we are fulfilling and will continue to fulfill them. As you know, I am in constant, lively, business contact with the Prime Minister of Armenia, and Armenia has no questions about the fulfillment by Russia of its allied obligations, ”Putin said.
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov also said that the CSTO obligations do not apply to Nagorno-Karabakh. “The security obligation is that if a CSTO member state is attacked from outside, then the contracting states are obliged to protect that country,” he said. The President clarified this issue, recalling that the CSTO obligations have nothing to do with Karabakh. Peskov accent that information about the hostilities in Armenia is not confirmed. So, the Russian state declared at the highest level that it would not intervene in the ongoing war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. As there are no grounds for this, military operations are being conducted in the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan and there is no doubt that Moscow's position would disappoint the Armenians living in Armenia and Russia, because they hoped that even if Moscow did not intervene militarily directly, at least through open and covert pressure and threats against Azerbaijan, it would soon stop their attacks. That did not happen. The Kremlin sent a message to Pashinyan and the Armenian people, who brought him to power through the revolution: "Take care of yourself, do not expect help from us at this stage."
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