Eurasianet

Officials in Moscow and their allies in Abkhazia and South Ossetia all canceled meetings with international diplomats brokering the discussions, casting the future of the talks into question.

A statement by the Foreign Ministry alluded to a potential confrontation with Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh and Russian border guards in Armenia.

Kyiv has long taken a pro-Azerbaijan position vis-a-vis the conflict with Armenia. Now officials say that Armenia and Russia are using the blockade to try to steal attention from Ukraine.

Azerbaijan's blockade of the Lachin Corridor comes as it accuses Armenia of dragging its feet over the fate of another critical route, the would-be Zangezur Corridor.

Armenia says the plan amounts to a territorial claim, while domestic critics say it is meant as a nationalist distraction to the country’s real problems.

Is Ruben Vardanyan the savior of a nation, a Russian agent, or a billionaire with delusions of grandeur who is now in over his head?

In his first remarks about the monthlong blockade, Aliyev denied there was a blockade, pointing to Russian peacekeeping vehicles’ use of the road.

The move comes as Yerevan-Moscow relations have been heading south quickly.

Azerbaijan has long opposed reestablishing air transit to and from Karabakh, though, and argues that it is Armenians who are refusing its offers to allow traffic on the road to resume.

In the wake of the reported diplomatic breakdown, accounts have varied over how much credit – or blame – to assign to Azerbaijan, Russia, and France.

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.

Vasif Talibov, “khan” of “Azerbaijan’s North Korea,” has long been accused of exercising his totalitarian impulses.

The closure of the Lachin Corridor a week ago has left the region struggling to secure enough food, medicine and fuel.

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.

The ongoing blockade has exposed the vagueness of the peacekeepers’ mandate, an uncertainty Baku is seeking to exploit.