The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan at a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin directly expressed his complaints to him for the inactivity of the Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh. They do not control the Lachin corridor, which is important for supplies.
This is reported by the Russian publication Kommersant.
According to him, the corridor has been closed for almost 20 days. "This is the area of responsibility of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh. I would like to remind you that according to the tripartite statement (from November 2020) of the Presidents of the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia, the Lachin Corridor should be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Azerbaijan guaranteed unimpeded passage of passengers and goods. Now it turns out that the Lachin corridor is not under the control of the Russian military," Pashinyan noted.
On December 12, the Azerbaijanis blocked the Stepanakert-Horis highway in the Lachin Corridor, the only transport artery connecting the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and Armenia. According to the statement of the Azerbaijani side, the reason for the closure was the need to check cargoes for the export of gold from mines actually controlled by the NKR. After that, protests broke out in Karabakh.
- On the night of November 10, 2020, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and Presidents of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Russiaʼs Putin signed a joint statement on ending the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, which lasted for a month and a half (since September 27). The sides suffered significant losses — thousands of soldiers were killed and hundreds of civilians were wounded during the shelling of cities. In this war, Azerbaijan won 40% of the territory of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, including the city of Shusha.
- In July of this year, Aliyev accused Russia and Armenia of violating the agreements that were spelled out in the declaration on the cessation of hostilities. Later, the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Hryhoryan, promised to withdraw troops from Nagorno-Karabakh in September.
- At the end of August, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, confirmed the control of the city of Lachin and the Lachin Corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh. It was the only road connecting the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.
- In November, after trilateral talks with Putin, representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan promised "not to use force" during the settlement of the territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.