YEREVAN. – The importance of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has grown in international relations, political scientist Manvel Sargsyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Sargsyan, commenting on the recent media reports that Russia is attempting to convince the Armenian side to hand several regions contiguous to Karabakh over to Azerbaijan in the hopes of getting Baku’s consent to join the Eurasian Economic Union, noted: “Russia can’t propose anything alone under the circumstances, and this proposal will hardly be to anyone’s liking.”

As per the analyst, the fact that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy had recently approved a pro-Azerbaijani report speaks to the fact that major political changes are occurring ever since Russia has actually entered Syria.

“And any player in the international arena is attempting to make use of all the factors—including regional conflicts—existing in the region, to create new relations,” he stressed. “Russia[, on the other hand,] is actually trying to build new relations with all countries in the region, [and] which [i.e. the relations] will contribute to its new policy.”