Unlike other visitors, Pashinyan was privileged to get in close contact with Vladimir Putin, rather than having a conversation separated by a 10-meter-long table.
“All this means is that to have a ‘cordial’ conversation Pashinyan fulfilled all the requirements of the Russian president’s medical staff, which most self-respecting foreign leaders do not agree to,” MP and political analyst Rasim Musabekov posted on his Facebook page. “The statement signed as a result of the visit contained little new information and, in fact, only confirmed the established format of the relationship between the parties as one of a ‘patron/client (outpost)’ nature. Even Armenian media did not bother with a detailed analysis of the document. It is of even less interest to Azerbaijan. Yet Paragraph 24 is noteworthy. It says that the parties ‘… stressed the crucial contribution of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to ensuring security, creating positive and safe living conditions for the population of Nagorno-Karabakh. We emphasized the need for the speedy resolution of urgent humanitarian problems and the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement through political and diplomatic means. In that context, we hailed the importance of using the potential and experience of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing institution in line with its international mandate’,” the political analyst said.
He wonders why there is a provision concerning the territory of Azerbaijan in an Armenian-Russian diplomatic document at all, especially one using the phrase “Nagorno-Karabakh”, when Baku has officially declared that there is no longer a region bearing that name on the political map of Azerbaijan.
“Obviously, this paragraph was included in the document at the insistent plea of the Armenian party, who in exchange agreed to put on record in the statement its condemnation of the sanctions against Russia and joint circumvention of these sanctions, the so-called “American biological laboratories”, etc. But the dissonance with previous statements of Russian officials, including the recent public statement of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the de facto termination of the mediation mission of the OSCE Minsk Group, is obvious. It is not surprising that Igor Khovayev, who arrived in Azerbaijan in his new capacity of a special envoy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, was given a cold shoulder, unlike EU Special Representative Toivo Klaar during, who had visited Baku shortly before him. Moscow must realize that if Russian diplomacy keeps ignoring Baku’s legitimate demands, the mediation mission of its representatives is doomed to fail,” Musabekov summed up.
