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The head of Russia’s SVR Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, has warned that Nagorno Karabakh risks becoming a launch pad for terrorists who could enter Russian territory, the Interfax news agency cited him as saying on Tuesday.

"The intensifying armed confrontation in Karabakh is attracting militants from various international terrorist groups like a magnet," he said.

"Moscow has taken the escalation of tensions around Nagorno-Karabakh with alarm," he said.

In Naryshkin's words, Turkey's open and unequivocal support for Azerbaijan is a fundamentally new factor influencing the current escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"There have been clashes on the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh before. The current exacerbation of the situation is especially worrying not only because of its scale, but also because of a fundamentally new influence of external factors. It's the first time Turkey has sided with Azerbaijan so openly and unequivocally," Naryshkin said.