South Caucasus

Sergei Lavrov dismissed suggestions that Nagorno-Karabakh be annexed to Russia and said that the status issue needs to be resolved between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Lavrov indicated that there will be a role for the OSCE Minsk Group in resolving the status problem. Lavrov was speaking at the annual marathon new year press conference where he reviewed the work of his ministry in 2020.

"Azerbaijan faces a big challenge in restoring the territories it has retaken, most of which had been left delipidated for nearly three decades. There is first the task of cleaning the territories from land mines and other unexploded ordinance. Then laying down the infrastructure, such as roads and airports, and of course houses to enable the hundreds of thousands of people displaced in the 1990s and their families, to return. It is a huge task which president Aliyev appears to be cherishing. 'The great return' will dominate his agenda for the years to come".

Peace in the Caucasus for the last three decades has been elusive, and appears to remain so. Lulls between fighting sometimes offer some respite from the violence, but real peace remains absent. It is now needed more than ever, but the "Pax Putin" is not the solution, argues Dennis Sammut in this op-ed

The newspaper Izvestya asked Russian experts on the Caucasus to comment, and it says that they believe that the threat of resumed hostilities has not completely vanished, "since radical elements on both sides and the position of Turkey can play a destructive role".

It seems that there is no agreement as to whether the Karabakh conflict is resolved or not. Azerbaijan is willing to accept the status quo de facto, although it still claims those parts of Karabakh still under the control of Armenians. For the Armenians, the status of Karabakh remains an important issue since they hope that they can salvage something, after their military defeat, through political negotiations in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for discussions on the implementation of the Karabakh settlement envisaged in the 10 November trilateral statement which ended fighting in the second Karabakh war. The three leaders signed a joint statement at the end of the four hour meeting.

In Georgia there will be those, friends and foes, who will in the coming years seek to draw Ivanishvili back into the political fray. It will take a very strong will on his part to resist the challenge or temptation.

Disillusioned by the attitude of both Russia and the West during the recent Karabakh War, Armenia should look to making China a key partner for economic, political, and defence cooperation, argues Benyamin Poghosyan in this op-ed