Yerevan /Mediamax/. Director of the Russian Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies Ruslan Pukhov thinks that “Russia has become a hostage to 2020 decisions.”

“It was already obvious then that taking Karabakh under the protectorate under the guise of peacekeeping forces makes Russia’s position here very vulnerable, and first of all dependent on the goodwill of the Azerbaijani side. With Russia’s current loss of real power options and real will to act in the region, the Russian contingent turns, in fact, into military hostages of Azerbaijan, and is most likely doomed to be a passive observer,” the expert said in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

“In 2020 Armenia bet on Russia as its main ally. But now this bet is not working very well. At least, the pro-Russian orientation impedes Yerevan from getting support from the West. That is why, I think, Pashinyan has taken the line of a demonstrative break with Russia in order to reorient to the West,” Pukhov noted.

“Azerbaijan’s main deterrent Russia is busy with a special military operation in Ukraine. Therefore, Azerbaijan found itself in an extremely favorable foreign policy situation for the “final resolution” of the Karabakh issue, even without waiting for the expiration of the five-year mandate of the Russian peacekeeping forces,” the expert admitted.