Forecast: There are no special prospects for creation of a monitoring  group on the contact line between Karabakh and Azerbaijani troops

ArmInfo.There are no special prospects for creation of a monitoring group on the contact line between the Karabakh and Azerbaijani troops, though the group is  badly needed to maintain peace, according to Alexander Skakov,  coordinator of the working group of the Caucasus and Central Asia  Department at the Institute of Oriental Studies of Russia.

"The escalation of the situation in the conflict zone in April 2016  led to foreign pressure on all the conflict sides. This forced Baku  to come to certain agreements. However, given that they haven't been  signed officially, Azerbaijan refused to implement them. Under these  circumstances, Yerevan and Stepanakert must have the opportunity to  respond to the provocations of Azerbaijan and the response can be  even asymmetrical," the political expert stated during the discussion  on "Foreign and domestic factors of the escalation in the Karabakh  conflict zone."

At the same time, Skakov supposed that as a result of Russian weapons  delivery to Armenia, particularly, Iskander missile systems, the military  balance between the conflict sides has been restored. He also  qualified the Feb 25 Azerbaijani sabotage attack as testing of  Armenia, Artsakh, as well as the reaction of the OSCE Minsk Group,  Russia and the USA.

On February 25 Azerbaijani Armed forces made an attempt to attack the  southeastern (Martuni) and eastern (Akna) sections of the contact  line. Due to video surveillance devices, the forward detachments of  the NKR Defense Army noticed the adversary's advancement in due time  and made the adversary retreat. The adversary retreated, suffering  losses. The Armenian side suffered no losses.