Ruben Vardanyan has said his move is a patriotic gesture and he has dropped hints about entering politics. But others wonder if international sanctions against Russia may be motivating him, too.
A lack of detailed data means that it is difficult to measure what a 49 percent increase in exports to Russia means. But the country’s partners in Europe and the U.S. are watching.
The U.S. embassy’s decision not to visit Shusha followed soon after its reappointment of a representative to the Minsk Group, a body Baku has declared “dead.”
But just as Azerbaijani troops were entering the territory, however, it emerged that the new road that was the purported reason for the handover would not be ready for another week.
In 2020, Azerbaijan won back many of the water resources it had lost to Armenians in the 1990s. But the biggest source still eludes it, and farmers are still struggling.
A series of ceasefire violations has led to an unprecedented level of criticism, even as the Armenians of Karabakh still see the peacekeepers as their main guarantor of security.