Russia, US trade diplomatic blame over instability in Karabakh crisis
(Reuters) — Moscow and Washington have accused each other of destabilising the South Caucuses region, as thousands of ethnic Armenians fled their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh over ethnic cleansing fears.
«We urge Washington to refrain from extremely dangerous words and actions that lead to an artificial increase in anti-Russian sentiment in Armenia,» Russia's Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday.
Antonov's comments follow the US State Department spokesman saying on Monday that Russia had shown it was not a reliable partner after Armenia blamed Moscow for failing to intervene in last week's capture of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijani forces.
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Armenia had relied on a security partnership with Russia, but relations between the two countries have frayed badly since President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
«I do think that Russia has shown that it is not a security partner that can be relied on,» U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Thousands of ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh by Monday after their fighters were defeated by Azerbaijan in last week's lightning military operation.
Baku has promised to protect the rights of the roughly 120,000 Armenians who call Karabakh home but many refuse to accept its assurances. Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan blamed Russia for failing to ensure Armenian security.
Washington and a number of its Western allies condemned the Azeri hostilities, which have changed the contours of the South Caucasus — a patchwork of ethnicities crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines where Russia, the United States, Turkey and
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