Russia has so far sent about $15 million in aid to the victims of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in an interview with the Armenian newspaper Novoye Vremya on Friday.
"The Russian Federation's direct financial assistance to help the victims in Nagorno-Karabakh is currently about $15 million," he said.
The high-ranking diplomat noted that the Russian peacekeeping contingent and humanitarian response center stationed in the region guarantee security and stability, as well as perform vital tasks for the local population. Rudenko pointed to the results of the trilateral working group chaired by the deputy prime ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, which has held five meetings to unblock economic and transport communications in the region.
"Conditions are being created to restore normal life in the South Caucasus, turning it into a territory of mutual trust, security and prosperity. All this convincingly shows that Russia is always ready to put its shoulder to the brotherly Armenian people, to work together for the benefit of common interests," he concluded.
The joint statement of the leaders of three countries was signed on November 9, 2020, and allowed to achieve a complete cessation of hostilities in the conflict zone around Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been conducted there since September 27. According to the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides halted at the occupied positions, then a number of areas came under Baku's control, and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the line of contact and the Lachin corridor.
On January 11, at the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Moscow. The outcome of the trilateral talks, which lasted about four hours, was an agreement to create a working group of the deputy prime ministers of the three countries to establish transport and economic ties in the region.
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Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS