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Russia’s influence in the South Caucasus may decline, but it will never vanish, political analyst Alexander Iskandaryan claims.

He believes Russia cannot pick a side in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan because the Kremlin would “lose both of them”.

"If Russia unambiguously supports Azerbaijan, it will lose Armenia and then Azerbaijan. If the country unequivocally supports Armenia with Artsakh, it will lose Azerbaijan and then Armenia and Artsakh. So, somehow they will stay here, but as they put it, "on the residual basis.” Their main concern is the Ukraine conflict," Iskandaryan told Aysor.am.

"In general, the Russian influence in the region cannot disappear. It is impossible. A country of this size cannot basically disappear from the region. Russia will hold influence in our region even if it does not want to. Even if Russia decides to be a isolationist country and walk away from everything, the country’s influence will still be there," he stated.

Meanwhile, he believes Russia’s influence in the South Caucasus may be reducing right now.

“It happened during the 2020 war after Turkey strategically entered the region. Turkey had economic and cultural influence in the region before, but in a strategic sense, they got in after the 2020 war. They have influence here and Russia has to reckon with this, because Turkey is much more important for Russia, more than Azerbaijan," the analyst said.