Pashinyan to Putin- “Now It Turns Out That Lachin Corridor Is Not Under Control of Russian Peacekeepers”

SAINT PETERSBURG — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan complained about the continuing Azerbaijani blockade of the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia when he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint-Petersburg on Tuesday.

The two men held talks in the Russian city the day after attending an informal summit of the leaders of former Soviet republics. Putin revealed that he and PashinYan also spoke with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during the summit.

“We started yesterday and the three of us managed to talk,” he told Pashinyan at the start of their meeting. “Of course, the main issue is the settlement of the situation in the South Caucasus as a whole, Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, and everything related to Karabakh.”

“So, as agreed, we will discuss all these issues in detail,” added Putin.

In his opening remarks at the bilateral meeting with Putin, Pashinyan again said that the closure of the Lachin corridor runs counter to the Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Karabakh.

“At the moment, the most important issue is the crisis in the Lachin corridor. You know that it has been blocked for almost 20 days,” the Prime Minister said.

“I want to remind you that, according to the tripartite statement of the president of the Russian Federation, the president of Azerbaijan and the prime minister of Armenia, the Lachin corridor should be under the control of Russian peacekeepers and Azerbaijan guaranteed the unimpeded passage of passengers, cargo and people along the Lachin corridor,” he said.

“Now it turns out that the Lachin corridor is not under the control of Russian peacekeepers,” complained Pashinyan. “Of course, I would like to discuss this situation, what options there are.”