ArmInfo. There have been no noticeable changes in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. This is stated in the response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation to media questions received at a press conference on the results of the activities of Russian diplomacy in 2019.
"There are progresses in the implementation of the" small steps "that the foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Moscow in April 2019 to develop the agreements reached between the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia in Vienna in March 2019. The situation on the border and the Contact Line remains relatively calm. There is a hotline between Yerevan and Baku. A journalistic exchange carried out. The captured Zaven Karapetyan and Ilvin Ibrahimov were returned. Work continues on other prisoners. The ICRC is connected to it. We believe that all this testifies to the intention of the parties to take concrete steps aimed at preparing the population for peace, "the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized.
At the same time, the Foreign Ministry stated that so far no progress has been made on matters of the essence of the settlement. The Russian Foreign Ministry recalled that this topic was discussed during the recent visits of Sergey Lavrov to Yerevan and Baku. "There is hope that a substantive conversation will resume between the parties in the foreseeable future. For our part, we will provide the necessary assistance together with the French and American co-chairs in the Minsk Group," the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized.