Putin is optimistic about the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia after a summit with the leaders of the two countries

The Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he hopes to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which pledged not to resort to force Monday after a tripartite summit aimed at asserting Moscow’s influence in the Caucasus region.

This summit, which was held in Sochi, southwest of Russia, comes a month after border confrontations that killed 286 people, the highest toll since the war in 2020 for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which has been disputed between the two former Soviet republics since the 1990s.

“In our common opinion, this meeting was very useful and created a favorable atmosphere for possible future agreements,” Putin told the press at the conclusion of the tripartite summit.

“For its part, Russia will make every effort to find a final and comprehensive settlement” of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he added, noting that “it is in everyone’s interest to normalize relations”.

“We’ll remain in contact, continue the dialogue and search for necessary solutions in order to put an end to this conflict,” he added.

Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed Monday “not to resort to force” to resolve their dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, in a joint statement after Russian-mediated talks.

Also, Baku and Yerevan agreed “to settle all disputes exclusively on the basis of recognition of mutual sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to a joint statement adopted at the end of the Sochi summit.

The two sides also stressed the “importance of active preparations for the conclusion of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia in order to ensure lasting and long-term peace in the region”.

Putin, who has been busy for eight months in his war on Ukraine, wanted, through this summit, to restore Russia’s role in controlling the situation in the Caucasus, where the Westerners are carrying out their own mediation efforts.

The Russian president first met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for two hours.

“The most important thing is to ensure peace and create conditions for development,” Putin told Pashinyan.

For his part, the Armenian prime minister said that his priority is the Azerbaijani withdrawal from areas in Nagorno-Karabakh controlled by Russian peacekeepers, and the release of prisoners of war.

Then, the Russian President received his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, who thanked him for giving “the impetus to the normalization process”.

The fall of 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan left more than 6,500 dead on both sides and ended with an Armenian military defeat and a Moscow-sponsored peace agreement.

But sporadic confrontations continued despite the presence of Russian forces, whether in Nagorno-Karabakh or at the recognized border between the two countries, as happened in September.

These Russian-supervised talks come at a time when Western capitals have taken a more active stance in mediating the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, given that Russia is focusing its attention on Ukraine.

European Council President Charles Michel and French President Emmanuel Macron organized negotiations between Pashinyan and Aliyev in Brussels in August.

Russia, which does not favor such initiatives in a region it considers its sphere of influence, has exchanged harsh criticism with the European Union over the mediation efforts.

Macron, in particular, accused Russia of seeking to destabilize the peace process, while Putin condemned unacceptable statements.

Putin said in mid-October that “Russia has always tried to resolve conflicts, including in Nagorno-Karabakh”.

Prior to the negotiations, Pashinyan announced that he was ready to extend the presence of 2,000 Russian peacekeepers for a period of up to 20 years.

Armed with his military victory in 2020, the Azerbaijani president vowed to repopulate Karabakh with Azerbaijanis, while the majority of Armenians reside in this region outside Baku’s control since the first war in the 1990s, when the former Soviet Union collapsed.

And that war killed about 30 thousand people.

Türkiye, Baku’s ally, also made mediating efforts, and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently met Aliyev and Pashinyan in Prague.