Armenia will not be able to develop without the Karabakh settlement - Putin

Russia is interested in reducing tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We continue to cooperate fully for the search of  acceptable solutions to the  "Karabakh knot" in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as through direct contacts with Yerevan and Baku. We hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan will be able to reach a compromise - no winners, and losers," said Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference after the meeting with the Armenian president on Wednesday.

In turn, Sargsyan said that Armenia closely followed  the "intense foreign contacts of the Russian President last week," referring to the talks  of  Putin with Aliyev, Erdogan, and  Rouhani.

"I thank the President of Russia for the information on the course of these meetings, and is convinced that Armenia will benefit from the activation of the role of Russia in our region,"said Sargsyan.

Referring to the Karabakh conflict, Sargsyan reiterated the need to implement "open-ended tripartite agreements from 1994-1995, of the cessation of hostilities, the establishment of a mechanism for investigating incidents, the expansion of the mission of the Personal Representative of the OSCE chairman."

Sargsyan also thanked Putin "for his great personal contribution to the peace process."

Next President of Armenia once again made it clear that rejects a solution within the framework of the Karabakh autonomy within Azerbaijan.

"The essence of the Karabakh problem is a struggle of the Karabakh people for self-determination, it is inalienable right of all peoples in solving this problem, and to ensure respect for this right. That's what we talked in detail with the President of Russia," he said.

During the briefing, Putin was asked  by Armenian journalist: is it true that at the trilateral meeting in St. Petersburg, the Armenian side agreed to return five regions around Nagorno Karabakh, then three more regions?

The same journalist asked further: are they creating conditions for  the next exacerbation, when the Azerbaijani side has received a large number of weapons, and the delivery of Russian arms  to Armenia limps? Putin refused to comment on reports about the return areas, recommended to appeal to  the author of these statements.

However, he made it clear that a leak in the media on this subject has a goal "to formulate queries," and this is not unusual, it is common practice.

Armenia is looking for a way out of the situation and is interested in how to "remove all infrastructure, economic restrictions, to develop the economy and make people live better.

The same wants the Azerbaijani side. But it is necessary to find such approaches and such schemes, under which no one would feel neither victorious nor defeated, and that it was the decision of the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and was accepted by the society of the two countries, Putin said.

Answering the second question, the Russian president said that Russia does not abandon its commitments to Armenia. However, any country can buy almost any weapon in the modern arms market.

Azerbaijan  is  a country with  large volume of foreign exchange reserves, and  is able to buy weapons anywhere. "You see? Wherever," stressed Putin.-0—