Russia hopes for peace settlement between Azerbaijan, Armenia

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia hopes Azerbaijan and Armenia will implement the peace agreements signed in 2020 and 2021 under its mediation, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

At the same time, she criticized the West's attempts to get engaged in the situation, saying in an interview with Sputnik radio that such a policy is being pursued for purposes "directly opposing" peace settlement.

"Unfortunately, we have been observing such a trend here for many years. Now Westerners have become even more active," she said.

Zakharova recalled that there are no examples of successful settlement of conflicts with the participation of the Western countries, while the number of conflicts initiated by the West is growing.

"No one can say that somewhere where the foot, or the hand, or the thought of the collective West has been, the situation has become better," she said.

Azerbaijan liberated the Karabakh region from nearly three decades of Armenian occupation in the fall of 2020 after 44 days of heavy fighting.