Russia hopes for resumption of contacts between Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities over Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

Moscow is ready to assist settlement of the issue, Sergey Lavrov said during a press conference following the talks with his Armenian counterpart on Monday, RIA Novosti reported.

“We hope that in the near future direct contacts between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will resume, and we will do our best to help, as I have said, to create the necessary atmosphere for achieving the settlement of the conflict on the basis of previously reached arrangements and background acceptable to the parties,” Russian FM said.

Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev will meet in Vienna on Tuesday under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group.