uk.reuters.com. MOSCOW (Reuters) – An Azeri presidential aide said on Saturday that Russia has been supplying Armenia with weapons since a clash between the two former Soviet republics in July.
More than a dozen Armenian and Azeri soldiers were killed in July at the border between the two, which have long been at odds over Azerbaijan’s breakaway, mainly ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russia has called the conflict is a highly sensitive matter.
Hikmet Hajiyev, a senior adviser to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, said Russia has been “intensively arming Armenia” right after the July conflict, with Russian Il-76 strategic airlifters flying towards Armenia after July 17.
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The Russian foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
Russia has a military base in Armenia and considers it to be a strategic partner in the South Caucasus region and supplies it with weapons.
Russia told Azerbaijan that those Il-76 planes were carrying building materials, Hajiyev said, adding that Baku was not satisfied with this answer.