Forecast: There are no reasns to suppose Moscow will go to "exchanges" for Karabakh by implementing the "Lavrov Plan"
"For Russia, the forced settlement of the multi-ethnic ethnopolitical conflict, especially by forcing Armenia to cede the areas around the former NKAR to push Azerbaijan to join the EAEC, is not an end in itself, but it should be stressed that this document widely discussed in the media is nowhere officially not published,"- he stressed.
According to analysts, not promising Moscow a win, such a step can push Armenia away, can contribute to strengthening the pro-Western vector, while at the same time, in no way stopping the transport-energy partnership of Azerbaijan with the EU and the US. Markedonov is convinced that the accelerated resolution of the conflict behind the backs of its sides in the absence of real compromises contains new risks for both Transcaucasia and Moscow's positions in this region.
In this light, Markedonov considers indicative the absence of the Karabakh issue at the Sochi talks Putin- Erdogan, noting that this factor has strengthened a number of experts in the opinion, the exclusion of Karabakh from the Russian-Turkish agenda.
On the eve of the November 13 meeting in Sochi with Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced discussion of other issues and the Karabakh issue at the meeting. Erdogan expressed the supposition that if the Russian colleague is concentrated on this issue, it "will be easily solved". The Turkish president voiced a similar opinion on the eve of the trilateral summit of the presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey, held in Sochi on November 22.