Russian-Armenian oligarch Vardanyan defends Moscow’s ‘peacemaker’ role

He is a minister of the Armenian separatist enclave on Azerbaijani territory. He is a critic of the Prime Minister of Yerevan, Nikol Pašinyan. He wants a broader mandate for Russian peacekeeping troops. According to Baku, his opinion is only “fantasies and illusions.” For Azerbaijan, Putin’s soldiers can stay until 2025 at most.

Moscow () – The Russian-Armenian oligarch Ruben Vardanyan (see photo), “state minister” of the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, participated in a television link with Yerevan to defend the Russian peacekeepers. Armenia criticizes the Russian contingent for failing to prevent Azerbaijan from closing the Lachin corridor.

The billionaire has renounced his Russian citizenship to take up public office in Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh, the Armenian separatist enclave known by Azeris as Khankendi.

He believes that “circulation in the Lachin corridor must be unblocked by the leaders of all states and societies where common sense prevails.” The task of the Armenians should be to support the Russian peacekeepers, “to make them feel that they are playing an important role here, and we, Armenians, are not against them, we feel that they are on our side.” Vardanyan invites everyone to stop criticizing Russia in this situation, “because otherwise we will play into the hands of the Azerbaijanis.”

The presence of the Russians is the only guarantee for the Karabakh Armenians: “If they were not here, we would not be here either”, therefore we must ensure that they stay for the long term and consolidate their positions. Vardanyan guarantees that this is the position of the “Artsakh government”, and in his opinion the mandate given to the Russian peacekeepers is “too limited” and only allows a presence “in a reduced format”. The Armenian citizens of Karabakh must “unite to defend their territory, and not just to attract the attention of the whole world.”

Vardanyan expresses a very critical position with the government of Yerevan and with Prime Minister Nikol Pašinyan, who for days has been constantly repeating to the Russians that they take responsibility for putting pressure on Baku to reopen communication between Artsakh and Armenia. The oligarch, on the other hand, assures that he trusts the support “of the entire civilized world.”

He also attributes the role of spokesman for his fellow citizens to express the conviction “that in any normal country it is considered unacceptable that 120,000 people are left without light, without heating, without food and without medicine in winter”, affirming that he trusts all the people of good will who “live and govern in Armenia and in the whole world”.

Vardanyan’s positions are strongly criticized by the Azerbaijani side, as Akper Gasanov writes in Zerkalo. Baku considers them “fantasies and illusions”, given that even Armenia, according to the agreements of the Prague meeting, “has recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including the economic province of Karabakh, of which Khankendi is also a part”, and it is necessary to stop “talking about the ghostly Artsakh, not recognized by anyone”, on whose territory the politician-oligarch would be “illegally”.

According to the Azerbaijanis, “Armenia is not capable of guaranteeing its security on its own” and depends on Russia in everything, because it cannot even express its own line of foreign policy. Therefore, “it is ridiculous to start making a list of normal countries and other uncivilized ones”. One of Vardanyan’s statements that surprises Azerbaijani commentators is the one referring to the “path of life”, which allows one to pass “through the minus some medicines and a little food”, without specifying which route he is talking about.

Gasanov maintains that “this character who has decided to play big politics is simply drowning in the waves of his own lies”, when he is nothing more than “an emissary from Moscow”. According to the Azerbaijani version, it is precisely the Russians who are blockading the Lachin corridor, “preventing Azerbaijani environmentalists from accessing the Gyzylbulag gold mine and the Demirl copper mine, looted by Karabakh separatists.” The Azerbaijanis are ready to extend the agreement with the Russian peacekeepers “until 2025, and not for decades as Vardanyan claims”, whose role in the matter, and in all Armenian politics, is still not very clear.