Russia President Putin to hold in-person 'international negotiations' next week

Russia's President Vladimir Putin will hold in-person 'international negotiations' next week, according to the segment aired by Russian state TV on Sunday. It remains unclear who Russia's head of state Putin is scheduled to meet. Putin will also chair a meeting with the Russian government officials as well as hold consultations with permanent members of the country’s Security Council. The Kremlin press service is yet to announce Putin’s schedule for next week. 

Is Russia mediating Armenia and Azerbaijan Lachin dispute next week?

Russia's President Putin presided over the negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus who have fought a war over Nagorno-Karabakh [referred to as Artsakh by Armenians] territorial dispute. He held talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resolve the Lachin Corridor crisis.

In early May, Baku established a military checkpoint on the Lachin corridor, the winding road connecting Armenia to the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, that has triggered fresh escalation and surge in fighting. In mid-December, last year, Azerbaijan-backed demonstrators claiming to be environmental activists set up a blockade along the Lachin corridor protesting, disrupting the regular traffic and demanding a halt in the mining activity. This affected Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian residents from accessing basic necessities.

Republic of Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the Lachin corridor from the Armenian side on the bridge over the Akera River. Credit: Twitter/@FrontArtsakh

In its ruling, the ICJ cited that there were critical shortages of "food, medicines, and other life-saving medical supplies" that deprived ethnic Armenians in the area of crucial care due to the Baku-backed blockade, which Yerevan described as "ethnic cleansing."

Baku must "take all measures at its disposal to ensure the unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions," the ICJ stated in the ruling.

While the Russian peacekeeping mission escorted supplies in the region through the blockade, a European Union (EU) mission was dispatched to the Armenian side of the state border to implement the International Court of Justice's order to Baku to “ensure unimpeded movement” in the Lachin corridor. UN's top court ordered Azerbaijan to allow free passage to the Armenian residents through the Lachin Corridor. 

Protests against installation of an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor, across the Khakari River. Credit: Twitter/@region776

Intense clashes broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenian forces in May, which came following two and a half years of the deadly six-week war that pushed Armenian forces out of the region, resulting in at least three fatalities. The region had been under the control of Armenia for over three decades since the early 1990s war between the two archrivals. As Baku, Yerevan and Moscow inked a trilateral deal, the ethnic Armenian residents fled Nagorno-Karabakh. Lachin Corridor is the only authorised connection between Armenia and the contested territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the region’s approximately 120,000 people.

Lachin Corridor. Credit: Twitter/@CineSeda

In an effort to mediate the crisis, Putin held a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Union summit at the Grand Kremlin Palace, in Moscow, Russia. Russia has held a major influence and power on the two nations located to the southwest edge of the ex-Soviet Union. While Aliyev and Pashinyan hit back at each other over Lachin Corridor, Putin noted that the talks yielded to the solution of “principal issues, [and that] there is an agreement." Russia's leader noted that there were “surmountable obstacles,” remaining and dismissed them as “strictly technical," according to the visuals aired by the Kremlin press service. He had also noted that Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan would meet in a week to try to resolve the rest of the differences.