Russian troops deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh since the fall of 2020 have begun their withdrawal, the Kremlin announced today.
The withdrawal of Russian troops comes 7 months after Azerbaijan recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been under Armenian control for three decades.
“Yes, this is indeed happening,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, confirming the relevant information from Azeri media.
In the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan and separatists backed by Armenia fought a six-week war for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which caused 6,500 deaths.
The war ended with a heavy defeat of the Armenian forces, who were forced to cede important territories. Russia had then deployed a peacekeeping force of 2,000 troops to oversee the observance of the terms of the ceasefire and the withdrawal of separatist forces.
In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a new blitzkrieg and seized all of Nagorno-Karabakh without Russian forces intervening, ending three decades of conflict over control of the enclave.
At the time, Armenia strongly condemned the inaction of Russia’s ally, which had long and traditionally been considered the “arbiter” in the Caucasus, and reached out to the West.
Since then, the United States, the European Union and Russia have tried to broker a peace deal that would settle territorial disputes between Baku and Yerevan, but no concrete progress appears to have been made in the talks.
Azerbaijan claims another 8 villages
Baku claims eight Armenian-held villages and the creation of a land corridor through the Armenian region of Siunik (south) to connect Azerbaijan with the Azeri enclave of Nakhchivan, and then with its ally Turkey.
For its part, Yerevan is demanding the enclave of Artsvasen (Basket in Azerbaijani), which is on the territory of Azerbaijan and has been under Baku’s control since the 1990s, as well as the zones occupied by Azerbaijan in the last three years and they are inside the Armenian border.
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