Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with Rossiya 1 shared his opinion on the escalation on the front line between the Azerbaijani and Armenian armed forces. He also commented on Russia’s policy of non-interference in the conflict.
JAMnews quotes from the text of Putin’s interview:
“This is a tragedy. We are very concerned, because the people living in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh are not strangers to us. Suffice it to say that we have about two million Azerbaijanis and over two million, according to our calculations, Armenians living in Russia. A huge number of Russian citizens maintain close friendly, and even familial relations with both republics.
Of course, this is a huge tragedy, people are dying, and there are heavy losses on both sides.
We hope that this conflict will end in the very near future. But before both sides have exhausted their resources, and apparently, this is still a long way off, but in any case, I would like to reiterate that we call for a ceasefire. And it needs to come as soon as possible.
As you know, Armenia is a member of the CSTO. We have certain obligations to Armenia under this agreement. But the hostilities, although they, regretfully, continue to this day, are not being conducted on the territory of Armenia. As for the fulfillment by Russia of its treaty obligations, we have always fulfilled, continue to fulfill and will fulfill them in the future.”
