Russia, as a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, supports the continuation of the work of this format—first of all, in accordance with its mandate and, of course, taking into account the regional realities that have emerged after 2020. The statement came from Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova—and in response to a question about Moscow's position on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's statement on "not allowing the OSCE Minsk Group to deal with the Karabakh conflict."

"This position of ours is fully shared by our partners in the OSCE Minsk Group—the United States and France. This is reflected in the joint statement of the foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries on December 7, 2021," Zakharova added.

She recalled that during the meetings last year between the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the parties were given balanced and quite realistic proposals for further cooperation on the agenda.

"It was aimed at solving urgent humanitarian problems—first of all, in the socioeconomic sphere. We are waiting for an official response from the parties—including on the resumption of the [Minsk Group] troika's regional visits," said the official representative of the Russian foreign ministry.