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The ‘most provocative’ behavior can be expected from Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at Friday’s meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the associate professor of the Department of International Security of the Faculty of World Politics of Moscow State University, Alexey Fenenko, told the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, speaking of his expectations from Pashinyan-Aliyev talks scheduled to take place in Vienna. 

“I think that the only thing can be expected now – clarifying the situation with the St. Petersburg plan of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) settlement, worked out in June 2016. After the talks, it will be clear if it can be reanimated or the parties will look for some other scenario. In the second case, it will be a blow to Russian diplomacy, since Moscow acted as the guarantor of a constructive peace process after the April clashes in 2016,” he said.

According to the Russian expert, Pashinyan’s task is ‘to cancel’ Russia's efforts, so, he thinks, the PM will use the most provocative tactics at the talks with Aliyev, ‘judging by what he has been doing for the past year.’

“Those forces that put Pashinyan in power are very dissatisfied with the results of St. Petersburg plan, because it implies the demilitarization of the Azerbaijani regions adjacent to Karabakh,” Fenenko said.

The political scientist noted that Aliyev and Pashinyan will meet in Vienna against the background of a very alarming state of affairs in the Karabakh conflict zone.

“The fact is that the Armenian leadership, refusing the Russian plan worked out in 2016, offers nothing new...Pashinyan hopes that, in exchange for his anti-Russian policy, the Americans and French will help him develop a new plan for Karabakh, but this is not yet visible,” he concluded.