Putin holds trilateral meeting with his counterparts from Armenia and Azerbaijan

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the trilateral meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that took place on the sidelines of the informal Summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in St. Petersburg, TASS reports.

Opening the bilateral meeting with the Armenian prime minister, Putin noted that on Monday, December 26, the three leaders "managed to talk, the three of us."

Earlier, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin, Aliyev and Pashinyan had no intention to hold a trilateral meeting during the CIS summit. According to him, bilateral meetings were to take place on the sidelines of the summit.

The crisis in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic became the key issue at the meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, RIA Novosti news agency reports.

"Of course, the main issue is the settlement of the crisis in the South Caucasus as a whole, the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, everything related to Karabakh,” the Russian president said.

Earlier, the Armenian authorities refused to participate in a trilateral meeting under an agreement with Azerbaijan. Prior to this, Armenia's Pashinyan sent provisions on the peace agreement to Azerbaijan, having noted that Armenia was ready to sign the document on its own terms.