MOSCOW. – Russian Federation (RF) FM Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton examined the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. 

Lavrov met with Clinton on Saturday, and within the framework of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vladivostok, Russia, RF MFA official website informs.  

“Views were exchanged on the agenda issues. They also touched upon the settlement of the Transnistrian and Karabakh conflicts,” the message specifically reads.  

To note, the international community focused more on the Karabakh conflict following Hungary’s extradition of Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan, where he was granted pardon. These actions by the Hungarian and Azerbaijani authorities caused resentment in both Armenia and abroad. In particular, two of the three OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries—namely, Russia and the US—reacted negatively to what has transpired.  

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on August 31 from Hungary, where he was serving a life sentence—and with no expression of either regret or remorse—for the premeditated axe murder of Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, in his sleep, during a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest back in 2004.

As expected, Ramil Safarov’s return to Baku was welcomed, as was his act of murder, by the officials of president Ilham Aliyev’s government and much of Azerbaijani society, and the Azerbaijani president immediately granted him a pardon.

And Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan announced on August 31 that Armenia is suspending its diplomatic ties with Hungary.