Aliyev, Pashinian Brief Putin On EU-Sponsored Talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev meet in Sochi, Nov. 26, 2021

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan telephoned Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the weekend to brief him on their latest meeting in Brussels that prompted strong Russian criticism of the European Union’s role in the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused the EU of trying to sideline Moscow and use the Nagorno-Karabakh for its “Russophobic line” amid the conflict in Ukraine. Lavrov said that the 27-nation bloc wants to claim credit for Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements on border demarcation and transport links that were brokered by Putin following the 2020 war in Karabakh.

The Kremlin reported that Putin stressed the importance of implementing those agreements in his separate phone calls with Azerbaijani President Ilham and Armenian President Nikol Pashinian initiated by the latter on Saturday. It said they also discussed preparations for an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty which topped the agenda of Aliyev’s and Pashinian’s trilateral meeting with European Council President Michel held last Wednesday.

Michel said after the Brussels meeting that Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to start drafting the comprehensive peace accord and to set up a commission tasked with demarcating the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

“The president of the Russian Federation expressed readiness to fully support these processes,” the Armenian government’s press office said in a statement on Pashinian’s conversation with Putin.

Speaking after talks in Moscow with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, Lavrov argued on Friday that Aliyev and Pashinian already agreed to create a commission on border demarcation at their November 2021 meeting with Putin held in Sochi. He said Mirzoyan assured him that that agreement “remains in force.”

Lavrov also said that the United States and France have stopped working with Russia in their capacity as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group that has for decades been spearheaded international efforts to end the Karabakh conflict.