Washington briefing: Russia says it wants Karabakh settlement; mulls use of military force abroad

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Friday August 21, 2009

Washington - "Russia is interested in the [Karabakh] conflict settlement and we are not interested in any conflicts in the Caucasus," Russian premier Vladimir Putin said on a visit to Turkey on August 6. He also praised the "great positive work" undertaken by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev "in connection with Karabakh conflict settlement," the Russian state-funded RIA Novosti reported.

Mr. Medvedev has helped organize several meetings between leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan since last fall. Russia along with the United States and France, mediates in the dispute.

That the comments were made during Mr. Putin's visit to Ankara indicated that Turkish leaders were continuing to raise Armenian issues with third countries.

Like in Sochi earlier this year, Mr. Putin reiterated Russia's position that it would not force a settlement and would only serve as a "guarantor of the [peace] process and agreements made." He added that Moscow would continue to "help" the parties in the effort to "achieve agreements and find compromises that would lead to a complete and final settlement."

Writing for RIA Novosti on the day of Mr. Putin's visit to Ankara, commentator Andrey Fediashin suggested that only Russia could try to compel Armenia to compromise in Karabakh. But he also added that for Russia it would be both "stupid and dangerous" to try something like that "especially after [Russia's] recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

Meanwhile, on August 10 Mr. Medvedev asked leaders of the Duma, the Russian parliament, to modify the federal law on defense to specify when Russian military force could be used abroad.

According to the president's website, Mr. Medvedev recalled last year's war with Georgia, when Russia justified its intervention on the grounds that its peacekeeping forces deployed in South Ossetia, as well as local civilians with Russian citizenship, were attacked by Georgian forces. Both circumstances - an attack on Russian forces or citizens abroad - would now be spelled out in legislation.

The new legislative language would also allow the Russian leadership to authorize the use of force to "defend or preempt" aggression against another state, as well as to fight piracy.