The Russian foreign ministry on Thursday said that Moscow expects that the matter of Armenia’s membership in the International Criminal Court will be resolved amicably among allies, and once again blasted the European Union for meddling in the region.
Russia also said that “there has been no discussion” on an Azerbaijani proposal to open a checkpoint along the Lachin Corridor, a term Baku has proposed as a pre-condition for opening the road, which has been blockaded since December 12, despite its insistence that there is no such blockade.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during a press briefing on Thursday that the topic of Armenia’s membership in the International Criminal Court has been a topic of discussion during high-level meetings in both Moscow and Yerevan.
“I do not consider it necessary to publish the details of those contacts,” said Zakharova. “We assume that this issue will be resolved in a mutually acceptable way as customary for allies.”
Armenia’s Constitutional Court last week said the the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court did not contradict with Armenia’s Constitution. On Tuesday, Moscow issued a stern warning to Armenia about its membership in the court, which has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
During the same briefing, Zakharova also accused the European Union of have “destructive intentions” in the region and not being interested in building confidence between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The comments stemmed from a statement made by the head of the EU’s monitoring mission in Armenia Markus Ritter, who told a German news program that because his group had no access to Azerbaijan, it was unable to determine whether Azerbaijan was preparing to attack Armenia, as some in Yerevan have said.
“If there is no attack by Azerbaijan this spring, it can be said that the EU mission has been successful,” Ritter added.
Zakharova said that Moscow understands the deep divisions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but believes that the sides can come to an agreement.
“The main thing is to create an appropriate atmosphere for them, an appropriate basis for such agreements, mutual understanding, and to contribute to that mutual understanding, and not the other way around,” Zakharova said.
She said that statements such as the ones made by Ritter “only confirm the validity of our conclusions regarding the destructive intentions and actions of the European Union in this region.”
“Brussels is clearly not interested in confidence building and rapprochement between Azerbaijan and Armenia. And with its incompetent, constant, unprofessional, unwise, and dishonest actions, it is provoking disagreements between Baku and Yerevan. And, in my opinion, we can all see it, and it is simply not possible to conceal it,” said Zakharova.
“Of course, it is unfortunate that the EU does not think about what unpredictable consequences its irresponsible policies can have for peace and stability in Transcaucasia. We call on them to abandon such confrontational scenarios,” added Zakharova, who said that it was Russia’s efforts that ended the war in 2020.