Azernews.Az

BAKU – An influential Russian military magazine has published an interview with the leader of the self-proclaimed republic run by ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh region, a move that some have labeled as a provocation staged ahead of the Russian-brokered talks on the Karabakh conflict due in late June.

The Voenniy Diplomat (Military Diplomat) magazine, in its May issue, also carried a photo of separatist leader Bako Saakyan on its cover.

The publication wields influence not due to large readership but senior Russian officials being part of its editorial staff. Its staff includes presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko, chief of the Russian General Staff, Nikolai Makarov, deputy secretary of the Security Council Yuri Baluevsky, as well as security, international relations and defense heads of Russia’s lower house of parliament, and deputy secretary-general of the Russian-led security bloc CSTO.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said the ministry was aware of the publication, and Azerbaijan’s embassy in Russia was scrutinizing the issue.

Azerbaijani analyst Gabil Huseynli, labeling the magazine’s story "a provocation", said it shows "lack of unanimity" within the Russian government.

"Some forces within the [Russian] government, as well as some influential generals in the defense industry, have taken a course of ‘freezing’ resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. So, those anti-Medvedev forces, which are troubled by the emergence of a positive environment ahead of the Kazan meeting, have now become active."

Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan will hold talks in the Russian city of Kazan with President Dmitry Medvedev’s mediation on June 25.

The Karabakh conflict flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims. Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, since the two countries signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following a lengthy war. OSCE-brokered peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.