KONSTANTIN ZATULIN: RUSSIA'S POLICY LINE ON KARABAKH ISSUE WON'T CHANGE UNDER PUTIN
Artak Barseghyan
"Radiolur"
30.05.2012 18:46
Russian President Vladimir Putin will most probably pay a state
visit to Armenia in early September, Director of the Institute of
CIS Countries, political scientist Konstantin Zatulin told a press
conference in Yerevan today.
Russia's policy line on Nagorno Karabakh will not change under Vladimir
Putin's presidency, Zatulin added.
"Russia is not going to refuse from its mediating mission as
co-chairing country of the OSCE Minsk Group," Zatulin said.
"Despite the years-long efforts of Azerbaijan, the mediators remained
committed to the Madrid Principles. I think that Armenia and Azerbaijan
must think about the steps that will help relieve the tension in the
negotiations," the political scientist said.
According to him, Russia is interested in having good relations with
both Armenia AND Azerbaijan. "Russia believes that the high level of
Russian-Azerbaijani relations at least helps prevent Azerbaijan's
adventurism against Armenia. At the same time the Russian-Armenian
and Russian-Azerbaijani relations must not be compared. Armenia and
Russia are part of the same military-political union, while Azerbaijan
is just a member of CIS," Konstantin Zatulin said.