Putin urged Armenia to decide with whom it wants to solve Karabakh problem

Baku/28.10.22/Turan: The Russian President's speech at the Valdai forum on October 27 drew world attention not only with aggressive outbursts against the West, which have long become customary. 

Perhaps for the first time, Putin addressed the Third World so blatantly, trying to convince them of the need to be friends with Russia in the face of threats from the insidious West.

In many ways this speech was addressed to them, as well as to China and India.

Putin has been repeating for 20 years now the tired thesis that the world cannot be unipolar. But he cannot explain why the countries of the world should abandon technological progress and cling to Russia.

Putin tried to explain every problem by the insidiousness of the West, which seeks to take over the entire world and rule over other nations (as if Russia wanted something different).

Worthy of note is the contingent of those invited to attend the Valdai. For the first time there was a significant number of representatives of the very Third World, to whom Putin's theses were addressed.

It went so far as to say that Putin "unexpectedly" recalled the Iranian terrorist general Suleimani, whom the "treacherous" Americans "took and simply killed."  "Well, what is this!" - Putin tried to be sincerely indignant.

He dodged the participants' direct answers to pointed questions in every possible way. For example, about the concentration camps of the Uighurs in China, claiming that he had met with the Uighurs in China and they were quite happy there.

The organizers of the forum clearly worked on the list of invitees, among whom, unexpectedly, was Alexander Iskandaryan of Armenia. To his question about the difference of peace proposals of the West and Russia on Karabakh, Putin repeated the well-known thesis that Russia had offered in due time a plan of stage-by-stage regulation, but Armenia refused "and now has what it has".

He then made an important clarification: let Armenia itself decide with whom to resolve the conflict - with the West or Russia?  According to him, the Western option assumes that Karabakh will remain as part of Azerbaijan. "It's up to you," Putin said.

It was clear from his words that the Russian option does not imply the same thing. However, this was not the main point, but an implicit threat to Yerevan: "Make up your mind who you are with, us or the West.    -02B-