The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sharply criticized the Armenian government for publicly releasing confidential documents related to past negotiations on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
The Russian MFA spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during a briefing that Yerevan had “disregarded basic ethical norms” by publishing internal materials from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs as well as correspondence between heads of state without prior agreement from the parties involved.
Earlier, the Armenian government uploaded 13 documents on the “Karabakh negotiation process” to its official website. The publication included the Kazan principles, proposals put forward by the Minsk Group mediators in 2019, a 2016 letter from former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and other previously undisclosed materials.
“In Yerevan, they simply ignored the ethical standards by revealing working documents of the Minsk Group co-chairs – and especially correspondence between state leaders – without necessary coordination with the interested parties,” Zakharova said. “Since they have already done this, we can now comment. And it seems to me that these documents contradict many of the narratives that the Armenian leadership has been promoting recently.”
Zakharova stressed that the documents, including UN and OSCE materials in which Russia played an active role, clearly demonstrate that for three decades Moscow consistently pushed for a political and diplomatic resolution to the conflict, both nationally and as a Minsk Group co-chair.
“The released documents show that at various stages of the negotiation process, there were genuine opportunities for a diplomatic settlement and for addressing the interests of the people living in the region,” she said.
“To seize those opportunities required strategic vision and political will from the conflicting sides. The role of the mediators was to help Baku and Yerevan find a solution, not turn the process into endless bickering. Yes, opportunities existed – and they were missed. But that is not our fault,” Zakharova concluded.
