Moscow needs to add steely notes on Karabakh - Markedonov
Address by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan to Russia with a request to discuss her assistance in ensuring the security of his country poses a difficult dilemma for Moscow.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports this to Kommersant, as Sergei Markedonov, a leading researcher at the Institute of International Studies of the MGIMO Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and the editor-in-chief of the journal International Analytics, told Kommersant.
“Nikol Pashinyan’s appeal poses difficult dilemmas for the Russian leadership. Open military intervention on Yerevan’s side would inevitably raise the question of Moscow’s equidistance and its role as a moderator in the conflict. In this case, Ankara would say that its position is no worse, since two major Eurasian powers support “their own,” the expert said
According to him, there is “another scenario – an appeal exclusively to formal legal issues.”
“However, such a position will strengthen the sentiments of those within Armenia who consider an alliance with Russia unprofitable from a strategic point of view. For the Armenian political community, what is happening in Karabakh is inseparable from Armenia itself,” the international expert believes.
He is convinced that in a situation where “the stakes are very high, it is important to maintain influence on both sides of the conflict and not lose the political initiative in the region.”
“It is not at all necessary to reduce everything to a choice: open military intervention or silence. It is enough to add steely notes to Moscow’s voice regarding demands for an immediate ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table. Diplomatic activation is extremely important. And you shouldn’t be so rigidly attached to the format of the OSCE Minsk Group. In addition to it, Moscow can increase its own actions,” Markedonov concluded.
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