Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov raised the issue with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in a phone call reported by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“The Russian side stressed the need for the swift and full unblocking of traffic along the Lachin Corridor in accordance with the parameters set out in the tripartite High-Level Statement of November 9, 2020,” the ministry said in a statement.
The statement referred to the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. The truce accord placed the corridor under the control of Russian peacekeeping forces and committed Azerbaijan to guaranteeing safe passage through it.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan again accused Azerbaijan of violating it when he addressed the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna earlier in the day. He called for stronger international pressure on Baku.
“The blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh is not an isolated episode but must be seen as part of Azerbaijan’s systematic policy aimed at the ethnic cleansing of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh,” charged Mirzoyan. “Through creating unbearable living conditions, Azerbaijan aims to coerce the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to leave their native land.”
Earlier, the Armenian government accused the Russian peacekeepers of doing little to unblock the vital road. Some Armenian officials also claimed that Russia is using the blockade to try to force Armenia to join the “union state” of Russia and Belarus. Moscow angrily denied the claims.
The United States and the European Union have also repeatedly called for an immediate end to the blockade which has led to serious shortages of food, medicine and other essential items in Karabakh.
Baku has dismissed such calls and defended Azerbaijani government-backed protesters who occupied a section of the highway on December 12. They are demanding that Azerbaijani officials be allowed to inspect “illegal” mines in Karabakh.