The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov very accurately noted at the press conference on December 23 that the Karabakh conflict was inherited from the Soviet Union. The President of Artsakh Araik Harutyunyan wrote about it on his Facebook page.

"What about the visit of Azerbaijani "environmentalists" to the fields, the reality is that the Azerbaijani side, after blocking the only road connecting Artsakh with Armenia for the first time on 3 December this year, through Russian peacekeepers handed Artsakh authorities written demands, which had minimal connection with environmental issues and were absolutely unacceptable for Artsakh.

Despite this, the Artsakh side showed a constructive approach and handed over to the Azerbaijani side in writing the conditions agreed with the Russian peacekeepers, under which they would be ready to allow the visit of Azerbaijani ecologists to the mine.

The Azerbaijani side rejected the offered compromise and their reply was a long-lasting blockade of the road, which caused not only serious humanitarian problems for the 120 thousand population of Artsakh, but also grossly violated the paragraphs of the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020.

We hope that during today's meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Azerbaijan, the importance of respecting the points of the trilateral statement was also discussed.

Nevertheless, despite the violations by the Azerbaijani side, today the authorities of Artsakh state that they are constructive and ready to participate as a negotiating party in the discussion of any issue related to Artsakh," he wrote.