Putin expresses regret over victims of ongoing incidents in Nagorno-Karabakh

At his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Sochi today, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed regret over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He also stressed the strategic nature of relations between Azerbaijan and Russia.

“Our strategic cooperation is developing quite successfully. Just to say that despite all the epidemic problems and the economic constraints caused by it, during the first nine months of the current year, the trade turnover between our countries has increased by 11%. This is a good indicator,” Putin said, noting that next year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan. Putin stressed that there are 4.5 billion direct investments from Russia in Azerbaijan.

Referring to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he expressed regret that in Nagorno-Karabakh there are still problems and casualties from time to time.

“There are problems, there are incidents. Unfortunately, there are still casualties,” Putin said, noting the positive role of Russian peacekeepers in resolving the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. “As for the Karabakh settlement, it seems to me that our peacekeepers play a positive role here, the Russian-Turkish ceasefire control center is working effectively.”

Azerbaijani President Aliyev, from his part, said that he highly appreciates the role of Putin, the Russian peacekeeper in maintaining peace in Karabakh, and hopes to continue that work next year.