It was not us that left Karabakh; it was Armenia that recognized that Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. This was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin, answering the Mir television reporter’s question about the future of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), taking into account the respective positions of Armenia and Moldova.
When asked how he assesses, in general, the integration associations in the post-Soviet area, the Russian president responded as follows: “There are no simple processes in Armenia related to Karabakh; we all realize this. It was not us [Russia] that left Karabakh; it was Armenia that recognized that Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. They actually did it on their own initiative, and they did not particularly inform us that they were preparing for such a decision. This is just a statement of fact, as there are both positive and negative aspects to it. Well, it happened, and the internal political processes are complicated.”
