Editor-in-chief of Russian newspaper on whether Russia will side with any of the parties if Karabakh war resumes

In your opinion, how Ankara will respond to a recent Russia-Armenia protocol extending stay of Russian military base in Armenia till 2044?

In my opinion, this fact will certainly not be able to influence Russian-Turkish relations. Over the past year, I would say, these relations have improved significantly and leaders of both countries stressed that, in any case, they have no contradictions in this region and that Turkey and Russia consider each other as a certain guarantor of stability in the region.

Lately, there have been much talks about early resumption of the military phase of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. And how may Moscow act in this situation? Will Russia side with any of the parties?
 
I think it will not. Moreover, I think Moscow will exert all efforts not to let the war resume. In addition to political and other considerations, Moscow has fairly pragmatic considerations to prevent resumption of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. After all, Moscow risks whatever the outcome would be because the war means fairly large flow of refugees to the territory of Russia. For Moscow it makes no difference - be it refugees from Armenia or Azerbaijan. It's still a lot of people, destabilization of the situation in the region. To prevent this, Moscow will do everything to prevent armed conflict or at last the parties stay in the same situation as today.

Another regional power, Iran is in a very difficult situation today. What attitude Iran may have towards strengthening of Russian-Armenian military relations, as well as a new agreement on strategic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey? May these changes irritate Tehran?
 
I think Iranians themselves face a tragic situation. How much they may be irritated by relations between the countries in the region, Tehran is not able to influence them. It is unlikely that Iran can say something to its neighboring countries since it does not have enough weight to do it even if he has nuclear weapons.


/Day.Az/