News - Russia MFA responds to Armenia PM statement on 2 CSTO countries’ participation in preparing for Karabakh war

Do you remember there was a song like this and the phrase "My dear, guess for yourselves" in it? To be honest, I am interested in what countries the prime minister of Armenia was talking about. Do we all have to figure it out for ourselves? Or will they tell us later? Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), stated this during Thursday’s press briefing. "It will be quite logical to raise them if it is about such serious statements. Let's leave this to Yerevan," she added. Zakharova argued that Russia has done everything possible. "And Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about this on October 17, 2020, on Russian television. Direct quote: ‘So that Armenia does not feel abandoned and forgotten.’ Everything was done to make it happen exactly as the president of Russia said. Literally from the very first days of the armed conflict in the fall of 2020, the Russian side made the most active political and diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire. Those who have forgotten can recall verbatim all relevant announcements and press releases. In addition, each step was accompanied by official comments, including through the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Let me remind that at that time there were many telephone conversations between the President of Russia and the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia. After the negotiations organized by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, a preliminary ceasefire was announced on October 10, 2020, with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Let me remind that the possibility of concluding a ceasefire agreement was still in October 2020. Then the president of Russia convinced the president of Azerbaijan to stop the war, and he was ready to do it. But Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan insisted on continuing the military actions. What did this lead to? This led to the [Azerbaijani] capture of [Nagorno-Karabakh’s] Shushi [city], which opened the way to [Karabakh’s capital] Stepanakert. Everyone remembers this very well, and all this is documented. Thanks to the personal involvement of the president of Russia, it was possible to bring the parties to sign a tripartite statement on November 9, 2020. This statement announced the complete cessation of fire. These documents and the tripartite agreements adopted by the leaders of the three countries during its development, which were reached in 2021-2023, remain the only roadmap for the stable process of the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations," Zakharova noted. During Wednesday’s question-and-answer session with the government in the parliament, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had said that he knows at least two CSTO countries, which, in his view, participated in the preparation of the 44-day war against Armenia in 2020, while creating an imitation that they wanted to help.