Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin

MOSCOW (TASS)—Supplies of Russian weapons to Armenia and Azerbaijan form a balance securing the region from military escalation, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday, TASS reports.

“When we supply weapons to Armenia and Azerbaijan, we are sure there is certain balance and this balance is a deterring factor keeping the conflict from growing into warfare. As soon as we go away from there, as soon as we stop being a military technical partner of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, guys who are more ‘sophisticated’ in politics will immediately show up there and will stage a real bloodbath there,” Rogozin said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

“It is not weapons that shoot, it is people who shoot,” he said, adding that the demagogy over this issue arousing after the aggravation of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is regrettable.

“Let us imagine we are scaling down military technical cooperation with any of these countries, the Americans and NATO will get there immediately,” he noted.”

It has become ever clearer that it is necessary to finally settle the so-called frozen conflicts as they occasionally get unfrozen,” Rogozin said when asked which conclusions could be drawn after the latest aggravation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to the Russian deputy prime minister, shooting is reported along the line of contact every day. “Apparently, this burst of violence stemmed from this routine bloodshed,” he said, adding that it is necessary to get back to the peace process.

The agreement on ceasefire reached between the parties was mostly observed last night, NKR Defense Ministry reports.

Use of weapons of different caliber and mortars was registered some sections of the line of contact. In particular, the Azerbaijani side used 82 and 60 mm mortars and HAN-17 grenade launchers in the northeastern (Martakert) and southeastern (Hadrut) directions.

The rival also used drones in the southern, eastern and northern directions of the line of contact. The font divisions of the NKR Defense Amy closely followed the actions of the rival and resorted to corresponding steps, when necessary.