Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Saturday (9 August) hosted his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts to a Sambo Judo tournament in the city of Sochi. Earlier Putin held bilateral meetings with the two presidents where high on the agenda was the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Russian president's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists that a trilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliev might take place.
"We are not ruling out that such a meeting may be held," Peskov said. During the meetings on Saturday "all the parties expressed concern with the growing tensions and the recent incidents (in Nagorno-Karabakh) which resulted in loss of life, which can be said to be numerous," Peskov said. He described the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh as unquiet and unstable.
The appearance of the three Presidents at the Sambo Tournament created a stir on social media sites. The word "SAMBO" is an acronym for SAMozashchita Bez Oruzhiya, which literally translates as "self-defense without weapons". Sambo has roots in Japanese judo, but was developed as a sport by the Soviet Army in the 1920s to help soldiers develop hand to hand combat. Some criticised the Presidents for appearing together at what looked like a jovial event so soon after the violence of the last days in the Nagorno-Karabaklh conflict zone, and without having yet made any progress in their talks. Others welcomed the appearance at the Sambo tournament as a positive sign.
If the trilateral meeting scheduled for today takes place, and if it succeeds, this would make it the first example of Sambo diplomacy in history.
source: commonspace.eu
photo: Presidents Aliev, Putin and Sargsyan at a Sambo Tournament event in Sochi on 9 August 2014. (Screen grab from Rossiya 2 TV).
