Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has declared that Russia either cannot maintain control over the Lachin Corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) to Armenia or doesn’t want to.

Pashinyan made the remarks in an interview with La Repubblica, published on Saturday, September 2, when asked what response he gets when he asks Moscow why the Russian peacekeepers do not fulfill their duties and why they are enabling Azerbaijan to take control over Karabakh?

“Of course, we talk about these issues with our Russian partners. But irrespective of these discussions, we of course have our own hypothesis. When we talk about this hypothesis, also several events that took place in Russia push us to draw historical parallels,” he said.

“Our region has already witnessed such a situation. In fact, for quite a long time the Russian Federation has been present in our region, the South Caucasus. But we have observed situations when overnight, within a month or within a year the Russian Federation just got up and left South Caucasus.

“Our Russian colleagues say a lot that Armenia’s western partners, western countries work with Armenia or push the government of Armenia in order for the Armenian government to take measures, pursuing the objective to push out Russia from this region.

“But when we talk with our Russian partners, sometimes we express our opinion and our assessment that it’s the opposite, we see that Russia by virtue of a number of steps it takes or fails to take, leaves the region on its own. As for the reasons, we are unaware. We can of course make interpretations, but I cannot make any statement. I can propose hypothesis, but I will refrain from that now. It’s understandable that the issue you refer to is a matter of great concern and interest for us and there is nothing new here. But there are processes which of course lead us to believe that all this scenarios may repeat, we just can wake up one day and see that Russia is not here.

“I have to agree with your formulation that the Lachin Corridor that should have been under the control of the Russian peacekeepers is not under the control of the Russian peacekeepers. There may be two reasons, either the Russian Federation cannot maintain control over the Lachin Corridor, or it just doesn’t want to. Both are problematic from our perspective.”

Since December 12, 2022, the sole road connecting Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia - the Lachin Corridor - has been blocked by Azerbaijan. Baku tightened the blockade on June 15, 2023, banning emergency relief supplies that were carried out by Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross through the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia and the outside world. The move aggravated the shortages of food, medicine and other essential items experienced by the region’s population. On August 15, Karabakh Human Rights Defender’s office reported the first case of death from starvation.