Russian expert: In April 2016, Russia did not do enough to establish peace in Karabakh

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
 Monday


Russian expert: In April 2016, Russia did not do enough to establish
peace in Karabakh

Yerevan May 22

David Stepanyan. I saw no results of Baku's last April request to
Russia to stop the Artsakh army counterattack. Caucasus Department of
the Institute of CIS countries Deputy Director, military expert
Vladimir Yevseyev, expressed this opinion to ArmInfo.

"I expected Stepanakert to return to negotiation table, which would be
quite logical and normal. Apparently, there were no such demands,
which was a joint mistake by Russia and Armenia. I see Yerevan's
activity in this issue, which, apparently, wants to be the main one in
the negotiations with Baku, however, in this situation it is
counterproductive, since it is impossible to talk about the return of
some territories instead of those not present at the table," he said.

Yevseyev supposed that last April Ilham Aliyev took the obligation to
refrain from military actions in the zone of the Karabakh conflict.
And, at least until February 2017 - attempts of two Azerbaijani
reconnaissance groups to penetrate into Artsakh soil, during which up
to 10 Azerbaijani servicemen were killed, in general, took place.
Thus, Moscow froze the conflict for some time.

"In my opinion, this short-term frostbite was not worth it, as April
brought much more negative consequences, in particular, it reinforced
Baku's confidence in the correctness of the policy of "biting off the
territories." In April, the propagandists managed to convince the
Azerbaijani society of the victory, and allow Baku not to go to
compromises, I do not see other conditions specifically for Karabakh,
so I believe that Russia has not done enough to establish peace in
Karabakh," the Russian expert summed up.