Russia should have prevented Armenian defeat, political strategist says

Russia should not have let the defeat of Armenia happen—the defeat of its main ally, its only ally in the South Caucasus, Russian political strategist Konstantin Kalachev said in an interview with Alpha News, speaking about the situation in the South Caucasus.

“As for the role of Russia, well, the ship has sailed. Now, if there was political will, we could have tried to help Armenia; we could have made Azerbaijan recognize Armenia within its current borders. Russia could have played a more active role, but it is good that it was invited to this format of 3+3 negotiations. And it’s good that there are two poles in this format: Ankara and Tehran.

All participants in this format are those with whom Russia needs to build relationships. I hope that Russia will take some kind of balanced position and still try to regain its role as a fair and impartial negotiator so that a peace agreement can be concluded with its participation,” Kalachev said.

According to him, Russia could have played a more active role earlier, but it is already too late.

“It could have prevented the defeat of Armenia. In fact, the logic is very simple. If your ally loses a war, are you also indirectly losing it or not? It seems to me that yes. But our leadership denies this. Russia should not have let the defeat of Armenia happen—the defeat of its main ally, its only ally in the South Caucasus,” Kalachev concluded.