Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused the West of derailing the efforts in the direction of an Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement.
Zakharova was reacting to the US State Department’s statement which in turn accused Russia of disrupting the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement efforts as part of the OSCE Minsk Group.
“If anyone has derailed the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement efforts then it’s they themselves, the Western countries, led by the United States. The OSCE Minsk Group format was sent into the ash heap of history after the Russian and French co-chairs stopped cooperating with their Russian counterpart in February of 2022 under a made-up pretext,” Zakharova said, adding that no explanation has been issued since.
“Taking this into consideration, we are focused on providing support to Yerevan and Baku as part of trilateral formats, based on the respective agreements on the highest level, which we have talked about on many occasions,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.
Zakharova said the Russian Foreign Ministry doesn’t see that the American mediation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement can include “real steps or have any added value.”
Russia reiterates readiness to organize a meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Zakharova said at a press briefing.
She added that Russia continues to support the process of signing a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Russian Foreiign Ministry’s Spokesperson said that in this context the Russian special envoy Igor Khovaev recently conducted “useful” visits to Yerevan and Baku.
“Both the Armenian and Azerbaijani parties confirmed their interest on our country’s mediation in this matter,” Zakharova said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Azerbaijan is currently being planned, the Spokesperson added.
