With Azerbaijani demonstrators settling in for the long haul on the Lachin Corridor, Armenia is questioning whether Moscow is willing or able to end the standoff.
The territory has imposed price controls and rationing, and Azerbaijan has demanded that it be allowed to set up border and customs checkpoints on the road connecting it to Armenia.
Residents of the territory reported disrupted deliveries of food and heating gas, and hundreds blocked from returning home, as the numbers of Azerbaijani protesters on the scene grew.
The blockade appears to be part of an increasing pressure campaign on the road and the Armenians who depend on it, and the protesters appeared to be ready to stay.
Baku is doubling down on claims Armenia is transporting weapons along the only road in or out of the region; Yerevan says the Azerbaijanis are faking the evidence.
Some Azerbaijanis cheered their representatives standing up to a Russian presence they consider pro-Armenian. Others, though, pointed out the hypocrisy.
A dispute ostensibly over gold mining and military hardware saw cars held up on the Lachin Corridor for several hours as Russian peacekeepers held talks with both sides
Yerevan cut relations 10 years ago following Hungary’s extradition of an Azerbaijani soldier who murdered an Armenian counterpart. But the post-war reality has pushed Yerevan to reconsider.
The Russian president and several other post-Soviet counterparts are in Yerevan for a CSTO summit, at a time when many Armenians think the organization hasn’t been doing its job.
With Karabakh’s fate in the balance, Ruben Vardanyan takes office while suggesting a new framework for coexistence: living “next to” Azerbaijanis, but not together.