Author: Sonya Jalatian

                                        Tuesday, 


Russian Anti-War Fugitive Detained In Armenia

        • Anush Mkrtchian

RUSSIA – An anti-war poster in Moscow.


Police in Armenia briefly detained on Tuesday a Russian man prosecuted in Russia 
for painting anti-war graffiti.

The 31-year-old man, Nikita Kamensky, was detained at Yerevan’s Zvartnots 
airport shortly after his flight from Istanbul landed in the morning. A police 
officer there told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that he was set free a few hours 
later after signing a pledge not to leave the country.

A short statement released by the Armenian police said Kamensky was put on 
Russian law-enforcement authorities’ wanted list in December for “vandalism.” It 
said nothing about his possible extradition to Russia.

Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), which usually deals with extradition 
cases, refused to comment.

According to OVD Info, a Russian human rights group, Russian authorities 
launched criminal proceedings against Kamensky in July after he painted at a 
Moscow subway station graffiti protesting against Russia’s war in Ukraine. They 
interrogated him and searched his home at the time. He reportedly pledged not to 
leave Russia during the investigation.

Kamensky could not be reached for comment. Yury Alexeyev, a Russian 
antigovernment activist based in Armenia, said his friends have already asked 
Armenian lawyers to represent him and help prevent his extradition to Russia.

Alexeyev and several other Russian expats have staged protests in Yerevan over 
the past year against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. None of them is known to 
have been deported from the country.

“Nikita’s case is interesting in the sense that we will see what Armenia can 
do,” said Alexeyev.

Artur Sakunts, an Armenian human rights activist, said that despite a 
Russian-Armenian treaty on mutual extradition of fugitive criminal suspects the 
Armenian authorities must not extradite Kamensky or any other Russian critic of 
the war facing “political persecution” at home.

The Russian government enacted last spring laws that effectively criminalized 
vocal opposition to the military campaign in Ukraine.



Russia Objects To Azeri Checkpoint At Lachin Corridor


Azerbaijan -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a joint press conference 
with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in Baku, .


Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated on Tuesday Russia’s opposition to 
Azerbaijan’s desire to set up a checkpoint on the sole road connecting 
Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia which was blocked by Baku more than two months ago.

Visiting Baku, Lavrov said traffic through the Lachin corridor must be regulated 
in strict conformity with a 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement that placed it 
under the control of Russian peacekeepers stationed in Karabakh.

“It calls for the free movement of solely civilian and humanitarian cargo and 
civilians,” Lavrov said after talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun 
Bayramov. “In our contacts, we are trying to achieve that first and foremost 
through the peacekeeping contingent. The setting up of any checkpoint there is 
not envisaged.”

“But it is possible to dispel, by technical means, suspicions that the corridor 
is not functioning as intended. We discussed that today,” he said.

Lavrov alluded to Azerbaijani allegations that Armenia shipped landmines to 
Karabakh through the corridor in breach of the 2020 ceasefire brokered by Moscow.

Both Yerevan and Stepanakert have strongly denied the allegations voiced both 
before and after Azerbaijani government-backed protesters blocked Karabakh’s 
land link with the outside world on December 12. The Armenian side views the 
blockade as a gross violation of the truce accord.

Lavrov called for a “swift and full unblocking of traffic along the Lachin 
corridor” during a January 17 phone call with Bayramov. He said the following 
day that Moscow told Baku that the Russian peacekeepers “can check each vehicle 
for the absence of prohibited, non-humanitarian, non-civilian goods in it.”

The blockade has still not been lifted. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said 
last week that Baku wants to set up a checkpoint on Karabakh’s lifeline road in 
order to ensure its “transparent” functioning. Yerevan rejected the idea.



Armenia, Azerbaijan Still Disagree On Peace Treaty

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Germany - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian at the Munich 
Security Conference in Munich, February 18, 2023.


Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to disagree on some key terms of a bilateral 
peace treaty discussed by them, parliament speaker Alen Simonian said on Tuesday.

“There are at least three or four things regarding which … we have differences,” 
Simonian told reporters. He refused to disclose them.

Simonian said that the signing of such a treaty is also hampered by new 
conditions periodically set by Azerbaijan as well as Azerbaijani “provocations” 
on the border between the two states.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov accused Armenia of such 
obstruction.

“At the moment, the Armenian side is obstructing the signing of the peace 
treaty,” Bayramov said after holding talks in Baku with his Russian counterpart 
Sergei Lavrov. “We can see that they also refused to participate in the third 
round of negotiations.”

He appeared to refer to Yerevan’s decision to cancel in late December a planned 
meeting of the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in protest 
against Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor.

Lavrov also mentioned that decision when he spoke during a joint news conference 
with Bayramov. He said he is still ready to organize the meeting with Bayramov 
and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Moscow.

“The Armenian side has stated that it has no objection [to the meeting] but has 
not yet given its final consent,” added Lavrov.

Despite the continuing Azerbaijani blockade, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian agreed to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Munich on 
February 18 for talks organized by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Following the Munich talks Aliyev spoke of “progress” in Armenia’s position on 
the peace treaty which he hopes will help to restore full Azerbaijani control 
over Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinian’s political opponents at home renewed 
afterwards their allegations that he has accepted Azerbaijan’s terms of the 
peace deal.

Meeting with Lavrov on Monday, Aliyev expressed hope that 2023 will be a 
“breakthrough year for the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and 
Armenia.”


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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