Radar Armenia spoke with analyst Mikael Hayrapetyan about regional issues.

- Is the Armenian-Azerbaijani dialogue in the domain of the West or the Russian Federation now? According to that, what is the reason for the activity of the West?

- Immediately after the 44-day war, Mr. Putin announced that the concept of "Karabakh conflict" no longer exists, hoping that only with his godfather and by his ideas he will establish order in the region. However, the West insisted on continuing the Minsk Group's activities, and Russia accepted that the conflict still exists. American and European mediation efforts have not stopped until today, so the field of Armenian-Azerbaijani dialogue is bifurcated, and neither side has a complete advantage today. The competition between Russia and the West regarding Artsakh is still ongoing. It is a severe confrontation between them, a war. The activity of the West, as you say, is also due to the strategy of not giving the South Caucasus to Russia and preventing Russia from entering the game in the other architecture of Iran and the Middle East.

- The meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan took place in the USA. Also, US Secretary of State Blinken announced the need for another such encounter. How would you interpret that meeting? How effective was it?

- Not only Mr. Blinken's organization of those meetings but also his frequent phone calls to the son of KGB general I. Aliyev, at this stage, means not allowing war, which is not in the logic of Russian-Turkish and Russian-Azerbaijani agreements.

- It was preceded by Nancy Pelosi's visit to Armenia. In this context, what messages did the visit to Armenia contain?

- The visits of the head of the CIA then and Mrs. Pelosi were very direct warnings about possible threats. The international IAEA group that visited the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant will be in Armenia in the next few days. Those visits are also a clear commitment that the US, even though it is in a hostile military-political camp, will guarantee territorial integrity and security in the case of our reasonable policy. And it was said.

- How would you assess Russia's reaction to those events?

- Of course, for Russia, such a drastic intervention of the USA in the strategic issues of the South Caucasus, which Russia perceived as a monopoly for 200 years, was undesirable. Naturally, Russia had to react with some convulsions, which it is doing these days not only with political steps but also with propaganda. It certainly does not befit a state with 300 years of imperial traditions until recently considered a world superpower. However, it is pretty understandable that it has become inadequate due to the disgraceful war in Ukraine. The current Russian inadequacy is a severe challenge to our political thought.

Hayk Magoyan