MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he hopes Russia and Armenia will hold talks at the highest level to have a frank discussion of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Nikol Vovayevich Pashinyan said that they appreciate what they had with Russia. It's hard to overestimate what Russia has done for security, economy, sovereignty, and what we had and have in our relations should be appreciated. I hope [he] will in communication with Russian President [Vladimir Putin], where it will be possible to discuss this (the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh - TASS) frankly, without the reasons that our Western ill-wishers throw in," he said in an interview with the Sputnik, Govorit Moskva and Komsomolskaya Pravda radio stations.
On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on the complete cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh. As the Russian leader said at the time, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides would stay in their current positions, and Russia would send peacekeepers to the region. A memorandum was signed on November 11 to establish a joint Russian-Turkish center to monitor the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh and compliance with the terms of trilateral agreements, following talks that were held via video link between Hulusi Akar and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The Azerbaijani presidential aide and head of the foreign policy department of the administration of the head of state, Hikmet Hajiyev, said on Wednesday that according to the decision of the top leadership of Russia and Azerbaijan, Russia started to withdraw its peacekeeping troops from Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday, ahead of the end of their mandate. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the troops pullout.