Armenia’s authorities could have stopped the war in Karabakh considerably much sooner. During a closed meeting on October 19, [2020] Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan informed me personally—and not only me—that a proposal had been received from the Russian side to stop the war. Eduard Sharmazanov, National Assembly ex-deputy speaker as well as vice-chairman and spokesperson of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am, commenting on President Vahagn Khachaturyan's recent statement on the war in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in the fall of 2020.

As the now opposition member noted, he also had proposed to stop the hostilities. Sharmazanov had voiced this view of his during the first closed meeting, which took place on October 12, 2020.

"At the time I offered him [i.e., Pashinyan] to petition to the Russian Federation with a request to stop the war and agree to the proposals of the Russian side. After all, the probability of new human and territorial losses was increasing. Nikol Pashinyan did not accept my offer negatively. It can even be said that he answered in the affirmative and agreed.

But the problem is that he did not petition to the Russians for a whole week ... On October 19, he was asked a direct question. ‘Have we lost [the war]?’ In response, he admitted that yes, this is a defeat. He said that we do not have opportunities to correct the situation in any way. So, why did he not stop the war back on October 19? I believe only he knows about that. There are many theories," said the RPA press secretary.

In his opinion, the incumbent Armenian authorities are not independent. According to the opposition figure, this political team is only attempting to adapt to everyone. We are talking about major geopolitical players, such as the United States, the European Union, and Russia.