Azerbaijan is trying to take advantage of Russia's involvement in Ukraine events in. Aleksandr Sherin, a former MP of the Russian State Duma and member of the Supreme Council of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), said this in an interview with LDPR TV.

"This is the so-called 'normal' behavior of the partners who are waiting for a convenient moment for some time, and when the Russian army participates in such large-scale events, they try to use their opportunity to somehow remind themselves in the international arena, they try to blackmail Russia by the fact that now our main resources and forces are busy," he said.

"But they are mistaken in the sense that Russia today is completely busy with its armed forces and resources, but the Russian Federation has sufficient forces and means to adequately respond to all the challenges and threats that may be observed in different border regions…

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, each republic chose its own path. Armenia is a CSTO member, Azerbaijan did not join the CSTO; moreover, it signed relevant bilateral agreements with NATO member Turkey. Let me remind that Turkey is a state that makes decisions to shoot down our planes. Turkey has never been, is not, and will not be a friendly state. According to that, any state that is in a military alliance with Turkey cannot be our friend either. Sooner or later it will happen. And when there is a conflict of interests, then, accordingly, Azerbaijan plainly and clearly makes it clear that it is not going to take into account the presence of Russian peacekeepers in the territory of the people's republic of Karabakh. We realize the consequences of the national policy of the Soviet Union. And in turn, the Russian Federation must eradicate all these issues from the beginning ... Even when Turkey sided with Azerbaijan, Russia probably should have sided more decisively with Armenia. In that case, many questions might not have arisen today," the politician concluded.

In his comment for the Regions.ru portal, Sherin noted that the fears about the possible resumption of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) are not unfounded.

"Indeed, we see the attempts of the Azerbaijani side to take advantage of the fact that our [i.e., Russia] views, our armed forces, all our foreign policy structures are directed towards the Ukraine events.

But in this situation, in my opinion, Armenia has the right, as a CSTO member, to apply to the Russian Federation. I do not want to give advice to anyone, but I can assume that if there are relevant relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan, and Turkey provides military-technical assistance to Azerbaijan, then Russia, a CSTO member, has rights, powers in relation to Armenia. And if the situation enters such an alarming level, the Armenians will probably have the opportunity and the right to officially apply to Russia for military-technical assistance, which they have not done before. I mean the following scheme: Armenian army and Russian armament.

If the Azerbaijani side may have seen some weakness in Russia's actions in Ukraine, then this is a very deceptive impression. Moreover, the situations here are very different. In one case, it’s about the fact that Russia treats the people of Ukraine as its own citizens and tries to minimize the loss of civilians. But if we talk about the actions of the Armenian army with the help of Russian weapons, then I think that the Armenian army has its principles and tactics. Let's just say that Armenia has just not asked yet for and received the military-technical assistance from Russia, which can radically change the course of events," he said.