"The road through Aghdam will eventually be opened" - "Kommersant"

Baku/11.08.23/Turan: Russia has put forward a proposal to open communications to the Armenian-populated part of Karabakh with the functioning of both the Lachyn road and the Aghdam-Khankyandi highway; however, the Armenian side has thwarted this agreement.

This was reported today by the Russian newspaper "Kommersant" with reference to sources in Russian state structures.

Moscow assesses the situation as very difficult and believes that Baku is not in the mood for concessions, the Russian daily said.

"All attempts to somehow calm the situation, which are made by us, Westerners, international organisations, do not lead to anything. Baku is not backing down," says "Kommersant"s interlocutor in Russian government agencies familiar with the situation in the region. At the same time, he notes, the separatists are also "stalling".

Nevertheless, the interlocutor believes that the road through Agdam will eventually be opened.

According to him, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed a variant, which was initially agreed to by both the Azerbaijani side and the Karabakhis. Its essence was that the road through Aghdam would be opened and the ICRC would start bringing everything necessary through it. And exactly a day after the start of traffic in this place, according to Moscow's proposal, traffic in the Lachin corridor would also resume. "This option was in high readiness," the source said.

But, according to him, the separatists put forward a condition that "Lachin should not open in 24 hours", but immediately, then the leadership of the Karabakh Armenians declared that no goods of Azerbaijani origin should be delivered through Aghdam, "then there was a scandal with Vagif Khachatryan", the Russian edition writes. As a result, no compromise was reached. -06В-