Moscow has increased its efforts at the current stage of the Karabakh settlement process , Professor Ruben Safrastyan, Director of NAS Oriental Studies Institute, told journalist. “Russia currently needs to establish contacts with its military bases located in Armenia. Those bases play an extremely important role in Moscow’s South-Caucasian policy,” Professor noted.
To that end, it is necessary to operate a railroad in Russia-Azerbaijan-Armenia direction, the speaker finds. “Today, Armenia is Russia’s sole strategic partner in South Caucasus. Moscow does not consider Baku its strategic partner. Russia’s policy in relation to Azerbaijan aims to involve Baku in its oil-gas policy and deepen divide between Azerbaijan and Turkey. Time will show how much Moscow will succeed in its efforts,” Safrastyan stressed.
In that connection, the expert noted that Russian diplomacy will not take any steps contradicting Armenia’s interests in NKR settlement process.
