MOSCOW
Russia does not expect the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to turn into an armed fight, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow with Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduard Nalbandian on Wednesday that Moscow intended to increase its efforts to solve the conflict using peaceful means.
Lavrov said the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict did not comply with The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)’s criteria for military support.
The CSTO is a military alliance of six ex-Soviet nations -- Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia.
He also promised financial support for extending the life of the Metsamor nuclear plant in Armenia while stating Russia's relationship with Armenia in the fields of energy, banking and telecommunications had improved.
Built in 1977 by the then-Soviet Union, the Metsamor plant is located in a first-degree seismic zone, 30 kilometers away from the Turkish eastern city Igdir, and is also controversial because of its old technology and equipment.
Act of aggression
The invasion of the Azerbaijan territory of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia started in 1988 with minor conflicts but evolved into a full war in 1992.
Since the end of the war in 1994, Armenian and Azeri delegations have held talks over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh under the supervision of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group.
The CSTO was signed in 1992 and the alliance was established in 2003.
According to the CSTO Charter, the allies consider peaceful means to resolving disputes to be their priority but, similarly to NATO, an act of aggression against one signatory would be perceived as an aggression against all members.
