Armenian and Azeri Security Chiefs Meet in Moscow to Discuss Frontline Security and Prisoners of War

MOSCOW — The heads of Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s National security agencies have met in Moscow to discuss the implementation of the Russian-brokered agreement to stop the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, it emerged on Wednesday.

Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) reported that the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, hosted a trilateral meeting with his Armenian and Azerbaijani opposite numbers on Monday.

An NSS statement said the three men discussed “a number of pressing issues, including the exchange of prisoners and the search for missing persons.”

The statement added that NSS Director Armen Abazyan and the chief of Azerbaijan’s State Security Service, Ali Naghiyev, reached “understandings on works to be carried out in various directions.” It did not elaborate.

The FSB issued no statement on the meeting. Bortnikov visited Yerevan and Baku earlier in December.

In the latest swap of prisoners of war, four Armenian servicemen were repatriated on December 28 with the mediation of Russia and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Earlier, the commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, Lieutenant-General Rustam Muradov said that official Baku confirmed the reports that 62 Armenians were captured in Khtsaberd (Hadrut region of Artsakh). Armenian MPs Nazeli Baghdasaryan and Sofia Hovsepyan provided Rustamov with the list of prisoners by name for conveying to the Azerbaijani side.