MOSCOW. – Holding of local elections in Nagorno-Karabakh cannot affect the peace process, representative of Russian foreign office Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.

“Russia, in close collaboration with its partners in the OSCE Minsk Group - the United States and France, has taken active mediation efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict. We will continue to assist the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides to reach compromise solutions on Karabakh knot shortly,” the statement reads.

Russian foreign office confirmed the commitment to principles of territorial integrity, non-use of force, as well as other profound principles and norms of the international law.

The statement mentions that Russia does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as an independent state, thus local elections in Karabakh cannot affect the peace process.

Local elections were held in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 18.