BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 2. The Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, has criticized Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for his remarks about Russian peacekeepers temporarily stationed in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region [under a trilateral statement signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war], Trend reports.
During her weekly briefing today, Zakharova said that Pashinyan's statements about the Russian peacekeepers are completely unclear.
"Don't the Armenian authorities need or want this activity? Do they want to put an end to it? They need to clarify their position. Unfortunately, we often see that representatives of the Armenian leadership take ambiguous positions on several key issues. It would be highly desirable to see no ambiguity on this matter. Playing with words doesn't lead to any positive outcome," she added.
Pashinyan called for an international mission to take the place of Russian peacekeepers on Azerbaijani soil last week and accused Russia of limiting its mediation efforts.
The prime minister added that "due to the events in Ukraine," Russia's negotiating efforts in the Armenian-Azerbaijani process "decreased."
He also noted that meetings with Western representatives have recently prevailed.