Putin on the status of Karabakh (UPDATED)

The status of Karabakh should remain unchanged and be decided in the future, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a press conference.

"For many years, and I will now repeat our position, we proceeded from the fact that Azerbaijan should return seven held areas around Nagorno-Karabakh," he said.

"The status of Nagorno-Karabakh itself should remain unchanged. It should be transferred to the future, the status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh should be fixed, but with the obligatory creation of the possibility of communication between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, for which it was supposed to create the so-called Lachin corridor; that is this is a communication corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh," the president added.

During a large press conference on December 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin answered a question about the conflict over Karabakh. He spoke about the status of Karabakh rather ambiguously, stating, "The status of Karabakh should remain unchanged and be decided in the future." This can be interpreted as how the autonomy should be preserved, which should be approved in the future. At the same time, he repeated that this is the territory of Azerbaijan.

“Legally, this is one thing, but creating conditions for living together is another,” he said. The settlement involves the return of Armenians to Karabakh and the provision of their ground communication with Armenia through the Lachin corridor, he said.

With regard to violations of the ceasefire, there was only one serious violation, Putin said and expressed the hope that there will be no other violations.

When asked about the possibility of increasing the number of Russian peacekeepers, Putin said that it is possible, but with the consent of Azerbaijan and other participants in the trilateral agreement.

Putin rejected the opinion that the war in Nagorno-Karabakh broke out due to the intervention of external forces (Turkey)

“The situation got out of control, this tension lasted for many years,” he said. - I do not think it happened due to some kind of outside interference. Frictions, skirmishes and minor skirmishes arose many times. As a result, it turned into a conflict. "The President called the preservation of people's lives the main result of the agreements, the rest is secondary.

International mediators on Karabakh should go from words to deeds and help the local population, not leaving it only to Russia, Putin believes.