Yerevan /Mediamax/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that “Armenia’s leadership has actually recognized that Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan.”

“It is not just the results of the last conflict, but also the fact that the Armenian leadership has in essence, recognized Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Karabakh. And the Prague statement simply fixed it on paper,” the Russian president said, speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum.

Putin noted that now Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev directly says that there is no issue of Karabakh’s status, it has been resolved.

“And the Armenian leadership has publicly announced this, counting the entire territory before 1991 within the Azerbaijan SSR and stating a figure that includes the territory of Karabakh itself. This has taken place. This is not our decision - it is the decision of today’s leadership of Armenia,” Russia’s leader said.

He said that now Azerbaijan’s position on Russia’s role in the region sounds as follows:

“And if that’s the case, they tell us, then you should solve all issues with us bilaterally now, if you want to do something regarding Karabakh.”

“Well, what can we say? There is nothing to say here. If Armenia itself has recognized that Karabakh is a part of Azerbaijan, what can we do?” Putin said.

At the same time, he continued, there are still issues related to the humanitarian component and the mandate of Russian peacekeepers.

“The mandate is still in force. And the issues of humanitarian nature, of preventing some kind of ethnic cleansing there, of course, have not gone anywhere. I fully agree with this. I hope that the Azerbaijani leadership, as they told us and still tell us, is not interested in any ethnic cleansing,” the Russian president said.

Putin reminded that Moscow offered its ways for settling the Karabakh conflict.

“We proposed to agree with Azerbaijan in the way that two districts - Kelbajar and Lachin - remained actually under the jurisdiction of Armenia. And the whole of Karabakh. But the Armenian leadership did not agree to this, although we were trying to convince the Armenian leadership for 10-15 years,” he said.

Putin said that various options were discussed “but in the end it came down to this.”

“When we asked, ‘what will you do?’ – they said: ‘we’ll fight.’ ‘Well, then,’” Putin described his dialogues with Armenia’s leadership. “In the end everything led to the situation we have today,” he added.