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.
As the blockade continues into its second month, local authorities have begun issuing food coupons and announced rolling blackouts. A brief internet outage contributed to anxieties among the besieged population.
The row over Russian troops stationed in the country comes as Yerevan calls for Moscow to step in and prevent a worsening humanitarian crisis in the breakaway region.
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.
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.
The drills included a crossing of the river that forms the Azerbaijan-Iran border, mirroring the threat that Iran’s armed forces had made weeks earlier.