Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the Armenian authorities are free to hold direct negotiations with Azerbaijan without Russia's participation to resolve the crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We are also worried about the fact that the trilateral agreements concluded at several summits between Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan in 2020-2022 have also flopped,” Lavrov said at a meeting with students from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Tass reports.

“I mentioned the resumption of transport links and also mentioned the trilateral commission that was working on this, but it is now practically not meeting. Yerevan believes that this should be done directly with Azerbaijan, but if they succeed, then for God's sake (Russian phrase that means “be my guest” – Ed.).”

Lavrov also noted that when it comes to the delimitation of the state border, the Russian Federation is supposed to consult the parties, but this is not happening.

"At the same time they (Armenians – Ed.) are constantly trying to attract the West, the United States, the European Union, Paris, to attract them to provide their aegis to any processes. This is their choice, but they need to agree, first of all, with their Azerbaijani neighbors. There is no other way," the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry added.

As Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan previously stated, direct negotiations with Azerbaijan are yielding positive results.