ST. PETERSBURG, December 27. /TASS/. The Lachin corridor has been beyond the control of the Russian peacekeeping contingent for 20 days already and it is necessary to look for ways of solving the problem, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the State Russian Museum on Tuesday.
"The crisis in the Lachin corridor is the most important issue at the moment. You know that it has been blocked for almost 20 days," Pashinyan said.
He recalled that it was within the area of responsibility of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh.
"I would like to remind you that according to the tripartite statement [of November 9, 2020] by the president of Russia, the president of Azerbaijan and the prime minister of Armenia the Lachin corridor should be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Azerbaijan vowed to guarantee unhindered passenger and cargo traffic along the Lachin corridor. Now it turns out that the Lachin corridor is not under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Of course, I would like to discuss this situation and what the options [for resolving it] are," Pashinyan said.
Pashinyan thanked Putin for organizing an informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg and added that such meetings were becoming a good tradition.
The Lachin corridor is the only road linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. On December 12, a group of Azerbaijanis, who introduced themselves as environmentalists, blocked the Lachin corridor, where the Russian peacekeeping contingent was temporarily stationed. Baku argued that the purpose of the protest action was not to block any road, and that civilian vehicles were free to move in both directions.
Yerevan interpreted this as Baku’s provocation, aimed at causing a humanitarian catastrophe in the unrecognized republic. Pashinyan said at a government meeting the blockade had already caused food shortages in Nagorno-Karabakh.