A military post along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Russia on Friday accused the West of derailing the process to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and hailed an “allied cooperation” agreement signed with Baku last year as a historic document that will help stabilize the region.

Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan, Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev, signed an agreement last year ahead of the Russian-Ukraine war. The document serves as a blueprint for the advancement of relations between the two countries and includes military components.

On the first anniversary of the signing of the document, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Friday hailed it as a historic agreement saying that its provisions of the will not only stabilize the region, but also international relations.

Reacting to a recent State Department statement, which accused Russia of disrupting the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group in the mediation of a settlement for the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, Zakharova accused the West and the United States of derailing those efforts.

“If anyone has derailed the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement efforts then it’s they themselves, the Western countries, led by the United States. The OSCE Minsk Group format was sent into the ash heap of history after the American and French co-chairs stopped cooperating with their Russian counterpart in February of 2022 under a made-up pretext,” Zakharova said, adding that no explanation has been issued since.

“Taking this into consideration, we are focused on providing support to Yerevan and Baku as part of trilateral formats, based on the respective agreements on the highest level, which we have talked about on many occasions,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Zakharova said the Russian Foreign Ministry does not see that U.S. mediation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement can include “real steps or have any added value.”

Zakharova reiterated Russia’s readiness to organize a meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers.

Zakharova added that Russia continues to support the process of signing a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. She said that in this context the Russian special envoy Igor Khovaev recently conducted “useful” visits to Yerevan and Baku.

“Both the Armenian and Azerbaijani parties have confirmed their interest on our country’s mediation in this matter,” Zakharova said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Azerbaijan is currently being planned, the spokesperson added.