Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to hold talks with leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Monday as Moscow seeks to reassert its role as a key power broker between arch-enemies in the Caucasus.
The talks in the southern Russian city of Sochi will come amid growing Western engagement in the volatile Caucasus region, where Russia – distracted by its war in Ukraine – is visibly losing influence after decades of dominance.
The initiative comes a month after the worst clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan since their war in 2020.
The offices of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said they both arrived in Sochi for the meeting.
The Kremlin said the talks would focus on implementing agreements reached in Russian-mediated talks last year and on “further steps to strengthen stability and security” in the region.
Putin first held a face-to-face meeting with Pashinyan and was later scheduled to meet separately with Aliyev before the three gather for trilateral talks, Moscow said.
“The most important thing is to ensure peace and create conditions for development,” he said.
“I very much hope that today we will be able to take steps to settle[the Karabakh conflict].”
Pashinyan said Yerevan’s priorities included withdrawing Azerbaijan from Russian peacekeeping-held areas in Karabakh and freeing Armenian prisoners of war.
“I thank you for the efforts you are making to establish peace, stability and security.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars — in 2020 and in the 1990s — over Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region.
A six-week war in autumn 2020 that claimed the lives of more than 6,500 soldiers on both sides ended with a Russian-brokered deal in which Yerevan ceded parts of the territory it had controlled for several decades.
Last month, 286 people were killed on both sides in clashes that have threatened a slow and faltering peace process.
Hostilities ended in a US-brokered truce after previous attempts by Russia to negotiate a truce failed.
With Moscow increasingly isolated on the world stage following its February invasion of Ukraine, the US and EU have taken a leading role in brokering peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
EU chief Charles Michel and French President Emmanuel Macron hosted talks between Pashinyan and Aliyev in Brussels in August.
After a series of diplomatic efforts from Brussels and Washington, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Geneva on October 3 to begin drafting the text of a future peace treaty.
Russian and EU leaders have exchanged criticisms of their mediation efforts in the Karabakh conflict, with Moscow and Paris notably exchanging jabs this month.
Putin recently dismissed a comment by Macron who said Moscow was “destabilizing” a peace process between the two countries.
Moscow traditionally acted as a middleman between the two countries, both of which were part of the Soviet Union.
– Russian Peacekeepers –
As part of the 2020 ceasefire agreement, Russia deployed a force of 2,000 peacekeepers to the region to oversee a fragile ceasefire.
Ahead of the talks, Armenia’s Pashinyan said he was ready to extend their presence for up to another two decades.
Russia’s peacekeeping mission has been criticized by some, with even Pashinyan voicing concerns about the force, in rare Armenian criticism of his ally.
The EU has announced a “civilian EU mission” in Armenia to monitor ceasefire violations.
Aliyev has vowed to repopulate Karabakh with Azerbaijanis and recently reopened an airport in the conquered territories.
Baku’s ally Turkey has also pushed ahead with its efforts to become involved in the mediation, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently meeting with both Aliyev and Pashinyan in Prague.
The Kremlin said the trio will also discuss “issues related to reconstruction and development of trade and economic and transport links.”
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan. The ensuing conflict claimed around 30,000 lives.
