MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. If confirmed, the reports saying that Washington may be imposing its mediation on Baku in its dialogue with Stepanakert risk undermining the reputation of the United States as a mediator, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, she said, "We do have concerns about [this information], and, if these facts are confirmed, – and I think the United States is simply obliged to comment on those – I am afraid, their reputation as a mediator will once again be undermined."

Earlier, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily, citing sources, said that the US "as an ultimatum <…> is strong-arming representatives from Nagorno-Karabakh to consent to a meeting with the Azerbaijani side in a ‘third country’ under the supervision of American handlers in the near future."

The conflict between Baku and Yerevan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union’s break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated on September 27, 2020, when intense battles erupted. On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh and later approved a number of joint statements on the situation in the region. Last year, Azerbaijan and Armenia launched discussions on a peace treaty.