Putin to Brief Pashinyan on Talks with Aliyev After Baku Visit

BAKU — Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Monday that he will inform Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan about the outcomes of his discussions with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev following his visit to Azerbaijan.

Putin shared his intentions during a private conversation with President Aliyev, as reported by Russian state news agency TASS.

Putin stressed that Moscow wants to maintain its “historical involvement in the situation in the South Caucasus” and Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, in particular, despite the widening war with Ukraine.

“If there is something we can do to pave the way for the signing of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the delimitation, demarcation of the border, unblocking, as we have discussed with you many times, relevant areas in logistics and the economy, we would be very happy about that,” he told Aliyev in his opening remarks.

“Of course, after my visit to Azerbaijan, I will contact Prime Minister [Nikol] Pashinyan and tell him about the results of our negotiations,” added Putin.

Russia has repeatedly offered to resume its mediation of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks over the past year, including in the aftermath of last month’s meeting of the foreign ministers of the two South Caucasus states hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Armenia has essentially rejected these initiatives, underlining rising tensions in Russian-Armenian relations and its ongoing drift to the West.

The authorities in Yerevan did not immediately react to Putin’s latest comments. Gagik Melkonyan, an outspoken lawmaker representing ruling Civil Contract party, dismissed them. He claimed that the Russian leader travelled to Baku discuss further anti-Armenian moves with Aliyev.

“They handed over Karabakh to Baku and are now reminding that Baku is in debt to them for that,” Melkonyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “So I personally don’t expect anything good from that [Baku] meeting.”