MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th November, 2020) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that a refusal from Armenia to sign the deal on Nagorno-Karabakh would have been suicide and that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accurately described the situation in his address to the nation a day prior.
"[Refusal to sign agreement] would have been suicide. Of course it is hard for prime minister Pashinyan, but he outlined the true picture, the true state of affairs as they were at the time of signing our trilateral statement, and as it is today. I have nothing to add. He said the whole truth," Putin said in an appearance in the state broadcaster Rossiya 24.
At the same time, Putin said, Moscow did everything in its power not to let Yerevan feel abandoned while respecting the balance of power in the fractious region.
"We proceeded from the fact that even in the course of such serious events a balance must be maintained ... And I assure you that Armenia did not feel abandoned, forgotten. Russia did everything to prevent this from happening," Putin said.
"But this is how the situation on the battlefield developed exactly the way it developed, as prime minister Pashinyan said frankly and honestly in his address to the nation, his statement yesterday," he added.
The president went on to say that leadership in Armenia on multiple occasions thanked Russia for fulfilling its obligations within the framework of international law.
