Posted on 10/08/2020 5:00:59 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Putin’s invitation came as there appeared to be no end in sight for nearly two weeks of fighting between Azerbaijan and ethic Armenian separatists that has claimed hundreds of lives.
“The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia are being invited to Moscow on October 9,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.
“The President of Russia is issuing a call to halt the fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh on humanitarian grounds in order to exchange dead bodies and prisoners,” the Kremlin added.
Yerevan has so far ruled out any talks between the two countries’ top diplomats as long as clashes are ongoing.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in bitter fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region controlled by Armenians who declared an unrecognised breakaway statelet after the fall of the USSR and emerged victorious from the war that followed.
Hundreds including civilians have been killed in the current fighting, the worst since a 1994 ceasefire, with both sides doubling down on entrenched positions over who should control the region.
Defence officials in Azerbaijan and Armenia said fighting continued into Thursday, with both sides claiming to have inflicted heavy losses and accusing the other of shelling civilian areas.
There was a gaping hole in the roof of the Ghazanchetsots (Holy Saviour) Cathedral, AFP journalists reported, after Armenia’s defence ministry accused Azerbaijan of targeting a cherished site for the Armenian Apostolic Church
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Well, good on them, presuming they’re sincere.
Putin may consider the former SSRs to within his “sphere of influence.”
Think it’s a land grab?
Trust Vlad about as much as you’d trust a rattlesnake.
Who cares, they’ve been trouble for us since Tripoli as in US Marines.
“Trust Vlad about as much as you’d trust a rattlesnake.”
I only trust him to act in what he sees as Russia’s best interests, but it seems that coincides with our interests more than it used to.
Russia wants peace in the Caucasus and no western influence
“Russia wants peace in the Caucasus and no western influence”
Do we have a problem with that?
Absolutely none. This is Russia’s near abroad, the Russians protect the Armenians from the Turks. In my humble opinion the Azeris aren’t particulary the “bad guys” — they are mostly agnostic and heavily atheist and barely Shia.
Iran is pro-Armenia and has been for millenia.
Turkey is the problem here.
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