Azerbaijani expert wonders what Russia can offer for Karabakh progress

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia accepted the failure of trilateral presidential meeting in Kazan with irritation, what is conditioned not only by damaged image of Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev, an Azerbaijani political analysts said.

“Russia is interested in a breakthrough in Nagorno Karabakh talks,” Rasim Musabekov said. “After the failure to achieve any result in Kazan, there were rumors that Medvedev was near to give up mediation because of the sides’ inability to reach a compromise. However, another energetic attempt to make the conflicting sides agree was taken immediately and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was dispatched to hand over Medvedev’s personal message to the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

“All wonder what Russia can offer to make the things moving. We can only presume that the status of Nagorno Karabakh is the stumbling block in the process,” Musabekov said.

“It’s hard to judge about the acceptability of Medvedev’s proposals. Strong pressure is needed to make the sides come to an agreement. However, neither Russia nor the other co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group want to press on Armenia, while possessing no leverage to press on Azerbaijan,” the expert said, adding that Russia and Armenia “will incur losses due to dragging out the process.”

The June 24 meeting between the Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents ended in a statement saying that the heads of state “noted the reaching of mutual understanding on a number of questions, whose resolution helps create conditions to approve the basic principles."

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan praised the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries for their continuous attention to the problem and once again thanked Russian President for his personal endeavors to bring the positions of the conflicting sides closer.

Later on Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian noted that meeting was not a breakthrough, as Azerbaijan proved unready to accept the final version of the basic principles suggested by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs. “Instead, the Azerbaijani leader attempted to impose 10 new proposals, thus precluding the possibility of any agreement on the issue,” he said.