Russia hails progress in Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process - Mikhail  Galuzin 

ArmInfo. Russia welcomes the progress that Azerbaijan and Armenia have made towards concluding a peace treaty and normalizing bilateral relations. This was stated by Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Galuzin in an interview with Izvestia.

"We are in favor of the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides - and Armenia  and Azerbaijan are countries with which we have allied relations -  developing a peace treaty that would open the way and mean a  sustainable long-term settlement of relations, and would not lay a  "mine" for future generations. Naturally, we are always ready to  facilitate movement forward and we are against the conclusion of any  hasty documents, as the West insists on, which is very eager to push  Armenia and Azerbaijan to conclude a peace treaty on some Western  platform as soon as possible," the Russian diplomat noted.

At the same time, he expressed the conviction that such hasty,  ill-considered and not fully verified decisions may not lead to  long-term sustainable peace, but on the contrary, lay the seeds of  confrontation for the future, which, of course, in the opinion of the  Russian Federation, is extremely undesirable for Armenia and  Azerbaijan, for the South Caucasus, or for Russia.

The diplomat also noted with regret that the work of the trilateral  group headed by the deputy prime ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and  Armenia to unblock transport communications and resume economic ties  has now been interrupted and frozen, so to speak. "Of course, we call  on the parties, and above all our Armenian friends, to return to work  within the framework of this group. The Russian side is always ready  to provide all possible assistance to the parties, if they so wish,"  the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia said.

Touching upon Armenia-EU relations, Galuzin once again stated that  the Russian Federation considers the West's line in the South  Caucasus to be absolutely destructive. He argued his position by the  fact that it is not aimed at stabilizing the situation in this  strategically important region for Russia, but at trying to  "contribute" to inflicting a strategic defeat on us from this flank.

"Sometimes there is even talk of attempts to persuade some countries  to open a second front against Russia - in Transcaucasia. As for the  strengthening of ties between Armenia on the one hand, the European  Union on the other, and the West as a whole, here we proceed from the  following. Official Yerevan, the Armenian state, Armenian society and  the Armenian people make sovereign decisions regarding how to build  their foreign policy and how to position their country in the  international community. This is their prerogative, and we, as you  well know, never interfere in the internal affairs of other states  and never impose any recipes or our vision on other states, but try  to develop some mutually acceptable modalities and compromise  approaches to resolving certain issues through dialogue," Galuzin  noted.