Russia is in support of efforts to freeze the ongoing conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), a Moscow-based political analyst said in an interview with the paper on Friday, ruling out other alternatives to reaching a breakthrough in the ongoing peace negotiations.
Stanislav Tarasov made the remark when commenting upon the Azerbaijani foreign minister’s recent statement unveiling details of the peace talks.
Elmar Mammadyarov said reportedly that Armenia introduced the “Lavrov plan” at the ministerial summit last week, with the negotiations currently being focused on specific points to push the step-by-step settlement plan into the agenda. Admitting that the talks in Bratislava (Slovakia) were “tough” in terms of the strong focus on the “red lines”, the Azerbaijani official said he nonetheless believes that the process should continue. “Even if a war breaks out, it isn’t going to be everlasting, the negotiations have to continue someway or another,” he said, insisting on the “specific and real points” dominating his agenda meetings with the Armenian foreign minister.
Commenting on the Azerbaijani top diplomat’s remark, Tarasov denied any deal on the so-called “Lavrov plan”, which he said never actually existed. “The Azerbaijani side hints the ‘Lavrov plan’ time and again. What that implies is, in point of fact, a series of events elaborated by the [of the OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairs. Russia at times simply moves to push ahead with certain processes on behalf of the Minsk Group. Whenever Azerbaijan speaks of the Lavrov plan, it wishes thereby to state that Moscow takes the full initiative of Karabakh settlement in its hands – which isn’t actually true. ”
“Regarding Bratislava, Lavrov voiced the ‘3+2’ formula in Baku, i.e. – two ministers and [the foreign] ministers of the [three] countries representing the OSCE Minsk Group. A certain text was apparantly to have been discussed in Bratislava, which we never actually heard … What they talked about dealt with humanitarian issues, hostages and exchange of delegations, issues which are realy important, yet no basic points regarding the settlement per se were actually discussed,” the analyst said, ruling out the possibility of a final deal without a fundamental discussion.