CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VI (1) Contemporary-Eurasia-VI-1-engl | Page 12

ALEXANDER KRYLOV
disturbed in favor of Azerbaijan with regard to certain types of
weaponry (tanks, artillery, heavy flamethrower systems, intelligence-
gatherings and combat UAVs, etc.). The military build-up in
Azerbaijan was accompanied by constantly growing military tension.
The destabilizing moves in the internal political landscape in
Armenia in 2015 encouraged revanchist sentiments in Baku. Russia’
position of a neutral go-between in the Karabakh conflict engendered
discontent on both sides. Both countries were seeking support from
Moscow, unwilling to compromise. As a result, the continuous
military escalation may “defreeze” the Karabakh conflict which would
change the current format of the region (3 + 2 + 1).
In 2015, the Azerbaijani side kept disrupting the ceasefire along the
entire line of contact of the armed forces, which in fact transformed
back into a front line in recent years. According to the Armenian side,
Azerbaijan breached the ceasefire agreement about 300 times 2
between 28 June and 4 July 2015 and about 400 times 3 between 15
and 21 November 2015. In their regular attacks against the NKR and
Armenian border areas, the Azerbaijani armed forces used artillery
missile units and heavy artillery 4 .
Moscow and Yerevan recognized the potential threat posed by the
situation and, in February 2016, Armenia received a $200 million ten-
year state export loan for purchasing Russian-made weapons with
payment deferral until early 2018. 5 The agreement would neutralize
the dominance of the Azerbaijan army in certain types of weapons in
the area of conflict. But in early April 2016 (before Russian weaponry
arrived to Armenia), military attacks broke out at the front line.
According to military experts, one of the reasons for Baku to
commence a large-scale military campaign at that particular time
might have been Russia’s “arms credit” according to which Armenia
2
Beglaryan A., NKR: The Main Results of the Year. 27.12.2015.
http://www.kavkazoved.info/news/2015/12/27/nagorno-karabahskaja-respublika-
glavnye-itogi-goda.html
3
Aksenov S., Karabakh of Discord, 27.11.2015, http://rusplt.ru/society/karabah-
razdora-19958.html
4
Beglaryan A., op.cit.
5
Russia Grants a Loan to Armenia for Buying Weapons, 18.02.2016,
https://lenta.ru/news/2016/02/18/armenweapons/
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