INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
volatile border with Azerbaijan.Moscow has sought to maintain its role as a powerbroker between the ex-Soviet republics despite being bogged
down in its offensive in Ukraine.On Monday, the EU launched a civilian mission to help monitor Armenia's border with Azerbaijan,
bolstering the bloc's role in a region viewed by the Kremlin as its sphere of influence.The mission has been launched during what Armenia
describes as a "humanitarian crisis" ravaging the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.Since mid-December, a group of Azerbaijanis has been
blocking the only road into Karabakh from Armenia to protest what they claim is illegal mining causing environmental damage, leading the
mountainous region of some 120,000 people to run short of food, medicines and fuel.Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday the EU
mission would "only fuel geopolitical confrontation in the region and exacerbate the current contradictions."Moscow accused the EU of
statement."We are convinced that the key factor for stability and security in the region for the foreseeable future remains the Russian
peacekeeping contingent."Armenia has voiced dismay at what it sees as Moscow's failure to prevent persisting tensions in the region.It
says Russian peacekeepers deployed in the region have not prevented the blockade.The United States threw its support behind the EU
mission."We welcome efforts by partners including the European Union to build confidence in the region and to ensure an environment
conducive to direct dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.United States
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also stepped up Washington's role in diplomacy between Armenia and Azerbaijan through regular talks
with the two countries' leaders
Earlier this week he urged Azerbaijan to lift the blockade on the road into Karabakh.Earlier Thursday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan accused Baku of exerting "economic and psychological pressure to provoke an exodus of Armenians from Karabakh.""This is a policy
of ethnic cleansing," he told a cabinet meeting in the capital Yerevan.He said kindergartens, schools and universities remained closed in
Karabakh due to the blockade, with thousands of students "being denied their fundamental right to education."Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev rejected the accusation as "groundless, false, and absurd."He said Russian peacekeepers and the Red Cross had ensured the delivery of
civilian goods to Karabakh."Thousands of civilian cars have entered and left Karabakh since Dec
12," he told a newly appointed French ambassador.When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ethnic Armenian separatists in Karabakh broke away
ended with a Russian-brokered truce that saw Armenia cede territories it had controlled for decades.
