"The Azerbaijani side had demanded to take down the Artsakh Republic's flagpole from top of Amaras monastery complex, which is currently occupied by Azeri forces, however, the Commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh Mikhail Kasabokov has replaced the flag with the Armenian flagpole," Russian-based political scientist Karine Gevorgyan informed on Thursday during a press conference in Hayeli media club. 

In Gevorgyan's words, the Russian commander has instructed to install the Armenian flag before the recent meeting between Erdogan and Putin, where the latter stressed he was satisfied with the joint Russian-Turkish monitoring mission on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. 

"The Russian president in practice does not make remarks by accident, I do not recall at least one," Gevorgyan said, suggesting the actions of the Russian commander in Artsakh were well-planned rather emotional.