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Serious pressure is being put on Azerbaijan to reach a breakthrough in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a Russian official said Thursday.

“I do not think it [the conflict settlement] can be reached today. The thing is such pressure is inflicted only by Russia. However it would be desirable that the EU, represented by the US and France in the Minsk Group, do the same to make it efficient,” Alexander Skakov, PhD in History, Working Group Coordinator at the Central Eurasia Research Center at RAS Institute of Oriental Studies, said in an interview with RIA news agency.

Mr. Skakov expressed conviction Azerbaijan will be forced to make compromises and concessions when facing coordinated pressures. “Although concessions and compromises should be made on both sides, serious concessions are required from the Azerbaijani side,” he added.

In an interview with the agency, Russian political scientist Alexander Karavayev in his turn pointed to the fact the Armenian and Russian presidents often meet after a meeting between the Russian and Turkish leaders.

“This once again gives us good reasons to say this topic can somehow emerge. However, we do not know which settlement mechanisms are more preferable to the sides and whether they have discussed the principles of the regulatory mechanisms or the relations between the parties to the conflict. Thus, it is hard to make any assumptions.

Both Yerevan and Baku are certainly expecting some results from that meeting. These are justified expectations, however they not always pass from plane of expectations to the real political domain,” he remarked.