The 168 zham newspaper interview Vladimir Kazamirov, who headed the Russian mediatory mission in 1992-1996 and acted as the RF President’s Authorized Representative for Nagorno-Karabakh and Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Below is an excerpt from the interview:

Question: If during his visit to Baku Dmitry Medvedev does not receive satisfactory proposals for Nagorno-Karabakh, may he revise Russian-Azerbaijani relations, radically changing his political orientation, in order to find, as he thinks, a more efficient mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process?

Answer: I do not believe these tough talks – Azerbaijan and Russia and neighbors in need of cooperation in various fields. Besides, the Russian President visits Yerevan and Baku not to take an exam and satisfy the “examiners.” Patience and persistence, intellectual flexibility and resourcefulness, are guarantees of success in this hard mediatory mission. The little achieved in the peace process is due to Russia or its immediate participation.

The problem is the parties’ positions rather than the mediators. They should not accuse the mediators or each other - they are doing it regularly – but they should test themselves, asking themselves: “Did we do our best?” It has not yet come to this, and the sides might draw lessons from their own mistakes.