The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russian peacekeepers had begun withdrawing from Azerbaijan\u2019s Karabakh area, ending a multi-year deployment which gave Moscow an important foothold in the strategically-important South Caucasus region.
\nAzerbaijan retook the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in September last year despite the presence there of Russian peacekeepers in a move which triggered the mass exodus of ethnic Armenians living there.
\nArmenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has since questioned his country\u2019s traditional alliance with Russia \u2013 which has a string of military facilities inside Armenia \u2013 and has started to forge closer ties with the West.
\nArmenia has also asked Russian border guards to leave their posts at the country\u2019s main airport in Yerevan from Aug. 1.
\nWhen asked about Azerbaijani media reports of a Russian withdrawal from Karabakh and areas nearby, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday:
\n\u201cYes, it really is the case.\u201d He did not elaborate.
\nAzerbaijani news agency APA reported late on Tuesday that Russian peacekeepers had begun withdrawing and that the first personnel and equipment had disappeared from a monastery revered by Armenians in Azerbaijan\u2019s Kalbajar district a few days ago.
\nAPA said Azerbaijani police officers had replaced the Russians at the site.
\nRussian peacekeeping troops deployed to Karabakh in November 2020 under a Moscow-brokered deal that halted six weeks of fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces.
\nAlmost 2,000 servicemen, 90 armoured personnel carriers, and 380 vehicles and pieces of other hardware were deployed at the time, the Russian defence ministry said.
\n(Reuters)Russian peacekeepers withdrawal. Russian peacekeepers, Azerbaijan, Karabakh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russian peacekeepers have started withdrawing from Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, ending their multi-year deployment. The move comes after Azerbaijan retook Nagorno-Karabakh last year despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers, triggering the exodus of ethnic Armenians. Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan has questioned his country’s alliance with Russia and is building closer ties with the West. Armenia has asked Russian border guards to leave their posts at the main airport in Yerevan. Kremlin spokesman Peskov confirmed the withdrawal, and Azerbaijani media reported that Russian peacekeepers have already started leaving the region. The peacekeeping troops were deployed in November 2020 under a Moscow-brokered deal to stop fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,1414,6134,1134,6138,4039,1136,6847,3419,5104,185,2952,3504,2153,3091,3331,5330,184,214,1792,19,2223,6848,2463,4568,18],"class_list":["post-8582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-1521","tag-airport","tag-alliance","tag-armenia","tag-azerbaijan","tag-building","tag-closer-ties","tag-karabakh","tag-kremlin","tag-kremlin-spokesman","tag-main","tag-media","tag-military","tag-monastery","tag-moscow","tag-news","tag-officers","tag-police","tag-police-officers","tag-prime-minister","tag-russia","tag-russian-border","tag-russian-peacekeepers","tag-vehicles","tag-withdrawal","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n