MOSCOW, October 13./TASS/. Moscow does not believe that the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh can be settled shortly, but it will keep working towards the settlement, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Thursday.

"I wouldn’t say we are feeling very optimistic about the settlement of that conflict in the near future, but we will continue working persistently both with Baku and Yerevan, and in cooperation with our partners," he told reporters.

"After the spring conflict, the Russian side has been making active efforts, of course not only alone, but also in cooperation with partners in the Minsk Group," Ushakov said. He said progress was seen at first, but then the situation deadlocked once again.

The aide declined to disclose the ‘backstage’ of negotiations, saying only that a lot of options were being looked into. "So far no reasonable basis is seen for specific optimism," he reiterated.

In reply to the question about supplies of weapons to Armenia from Russia, Ushakov said "Russia is an ally of Armenia, we are cooperating in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and in bilateral format," he said.

"So we have the right to supply the arms on which we agree with the partners, there is nothing unexpected here for anybody, and I believe for the Azerbaijani partners either," he added, noting that weapons were also supplied to Azerbaijan.