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Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan welcomes the statement made by Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee, claiming Russia has drawn important conclusions following the 2016 April war over Artsakh and will not continue to supply weapons to Azerbaijan at the same scale it did before.

“We welcome the fact that Russia is trying to draw conclusions from the April war. There is an impression that some conclusions are being made [by Russia],” Kocharyan told reporters following today’s Cabinet meeting.

The Armenian official also touched upon the ongoing visit of Artsakh President Bako Sahakyan to Washington D. C. and Azerbaijan’s uproar around it. 

“Artsakh is de facto an independent state and runs its own foreign policy, which is naturally limited so long as the country lacks international recognition. But in any case the visit is extremely important,” the Armenian official said.

In regard to Azerbaijan’s uproar over the Artsakh leader’s visit, he said: “It is natural, [Azerbaijan] had to complain. What else could they do?”

Commenting on the question the Artsakh president does not receive similar welcome in Russia or in the CSTO countries, Kocharyan said: “From this point of view, the United States has its own special approach. This is based on the fact that the U.S. provides assistance to Artsakh, which is approved by the budget. This means that the America overall has a much more multilayered, diverse approach towards foreign relations, which is also linked to the independence of the Congress: opinions that very often do not coincide with the position of the White House can be expressed by the U.S. congressmen and they may to some extent affect the policy. From this perspective, the U.S. is more flexible.”