The issue became hotter following the January 11 summit in Moscow between the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, when the Armenian side walked away having failed to secure the prisoners’ return.
The COVID-19 vaccination experiences of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia show that if you’re a small and poor country, you need to rely on powerful friends.
Together with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev signed an agreement to create new transportation infrastructure aimed at “unblocking” the region’s many closed borders.
Azerbaijan said that its shooting down of a Russian helicopter was an accident. But now Russia reportedly wants the case to be investigated as a murder.
The handover of territory has brought Azerbaijani forces into close contact with several Armenian towns and a critical road, leading some locals to blame the central government for failing to protect them.
The new fighting was an early test for the Russian peacekeeping mission as it tries to manage a new, ambiguous de facto border that passes through populated areas.
Moscow at first responded to the war cautiously, but was in the end forced to intervene decisively. Was this a geopolitical coup or was Moscow’s hand forced?
