(Moscow) Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to receive the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on Monday, after violent armed clashes on the border between these two Caucasian countries in September, which left 286 dead.
Posted at 9:54 p.m.
It was the worst episode of violence between these two former Soviet republics since a 2020 war over control of the mountainous enclave of Nagorny-Karabakh, a region disputed since the 1990s.
The summit between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also comes in the eighth month of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, which has caused embarrassment among Moscow’s partners and allies.
According to the Kremlin, the meeting will be devoted to a discussion of the agreements put in place during a mediation by Russia last year and to “additional measures to strengthen stability and security” in the region.
Mr. Putin will also meet with the two leaders one-on-one at the summit to be held in Sochi, on the shores of the Black Sea.
The fall 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan had claimed more than 6,500 lives on both sides and ended in an Armenian military rout and a Moscow-sponsored peace deal.
Sporadic clashes continued to erupt, however, despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers, whether in Nagorny-Karabakh or at the recognized border between the two countries, as in September.
Armenia notably accuses Azerbaijan of gradually monopolizing parts of its territory. Yerevan had already had to cede areas in and around Karabakh to Baku after its fall 2020 defeat.
Separate mediations
The Russian-brokered talks come as Western capitals have taken a more active stance in mediating the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as Moscow is taken over by its offensive in Ukraine.
European Council President Charles Michel and French President Emmanuel Macron organized negotiations between MM. Pashinian and Aliev in Brussels in August.
Russia and the EU traded criticism of their respective mediation efforts.
Mr. Macron had in particular severely blamed Russia, which he accused of wanting to “destabilize” the peace process, allegations swept away by Vladimir Putin, who denounced “unacceptable” remarks.
“Russia has always sincerely sought to resolve conflicts, including with regard to Karabakh,” Putin pleaded in October.
The Sochi talks thus aim to reestablish Moscow’s authority in the peace process in the Caucasus, a region where Russia has traditionally played the role of arbiter.
Russian blue helmets
Before the negotiations, Nikol Pashinian announced that he was ready to extend the presence of the 2,000 Russian peacekeepers for up to 20 years.
“I am ready to sign in Sochi a document extending the mandate of the Blue Helmets for 10, 15 or 20 years,” the Armenian Prime Minister said on Saturday, saying he hoped for a proposal from Mr. Putin in this direction.
The Azerbaijani president, on the strength of his military victory in 2020, has vowed to repopulate Karabakh with Azerbaijanis, while this region inhabited mainly by Armenians has escaped the control of Baku since a first war in the 1990s, the dislocation of the USSR.
Turkey, an ally of Baku, has also advanced mediation efforts, its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan having recently met Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinian in Prague.
According to the Kremlin, the Sochi talks will also focus on “issues of reconstruction and the economy, as well as transport”.
The war in the 1990s between Armenia and Azerbaijan claimed nearly 30,000 lives.