Moscow sees the EU mission on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan as an attempt to interfere in the settlement of relations between Yerevan and Baku, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"As far as I understand the formal decision of the EU about the mission has not been made yet. We see it as another attempt to interfere in the settlement of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan by any means. To squeeze Russia's mediation efforts. Of course, it is the business of the sovereign states to build their relations... As for the question about the real possibilities of the EU representatives in some kind of mediation, for eight years they were not able as participants, it was Berlin and Paris, to prevent the situation around Ukraine from slipping into such a hot phase. For eight years they wore the proud name of mediators, puffed up cheeks, made some statements, gathered some meetings - and nothing. You can say that they did it in a national capacity, being members of the EU, well of course I agree with that. Only these are the biggest EU countries... And now directly about the role of the EU in mediation. Yesterday Josep Borrell, head of EU diplomacy, lamented that the well-being of the EU economy ended along with cheap and high-quality Russian gas. We have to find a way to find a way out on our own, and especially considering the face they built not only for us, but also for Beijing, it will be very hard to do. That's literally what Mr. Borrell said. And I will remind Mr. Borrell of the role of his predecessor, Ms. Ashton, who really led this whole Eurodiplomacy thing and also bore the role of mediator on behalf of the entire EU on the Maidan. Yes, it was a long time ago, but it happened.

At that time she was really from Britain in the EU and shaped the entire EU diplomatic strategy. How did the EU's mediation on the Maidan end? They were the ones who wedged in there, too. She was walking around Maidan, though she didn't hand out pies, apparently they didn't have enough money for pies, but she was smiling as much as she could, holding hands, waving flags as always... Well, everything is as usual, in the best traditions of Western PR-campaigns. So what? Where is that mediating role? It ended with Britain's exit from the EU. Here are two concrete examples. The number of such examples is great... Brussels prefers not to think about the consequences of this step on the mentioned track (Yerevan and Baku) for the regional stability.

We know from history that the EU missions did not lead to a real settlement. If you know any successful examples lately, give us some... I would even say that not only they failed to be mediators for others, they failed to defend their own interests, themselves as an association and their member states. We proceed from the fact that the only key to the reconciliation of Yerevan and Baku and the establishment of durable peace and long-term stability in the region is the full implementation of the trilateral statements of the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. We maintain regular contacts on this issue with our Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts and expect to take advantage of the upcoming CIS Ministerial Council event in Astana," Zakharova said.

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12.10.2022 08:37