ArmInfo. Russian President Vladimir Putin has brushed off comments from French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that Moscow was destabilizing the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, rferl.org reports.
Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a conflict over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region for almost three decades, after Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region.
Macron, in an interview with France 2 television, accused Moscow of deliberately provoking recent clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan as part of an effort to destabilize the volatile region.
"I believe that these statements show a lack understanding of the course of the conflict," Putin said during a meeting of leaders of CIS countries in Kazakhstan on October 14, adding that Macron's remarks "sounded incorrect, I would even say perverse, therefore (they are) unacceptable."
On October 13, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Macron's statement was "outrageous, absolutely unacceptable."
Macron, in an interview with the France 2 television channel, accused Moscow of deliberately provoking recent clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan as part of an effort to destabilize the volatile region.