Information on Russian Deputy Foreign Minister's meeting with French Co-Chair was removed from the Russian Foreign Ministry's website because of inaccurate text, Official Representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova stated at today's briefing answering to the question why the text, which included information about upcoming meeting between Armenia and Azerbaijani leaders in Saint-Petersburg in June, was deleted from the foreign ministry's website.
"The text was written inaccurately and gave the impression of announcement of meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Saint Petersburg. In this light the text was corrected and put again on the website", Zakharova noted.
According to her the matter concerns hypothetical planning of the meeting. "As the Russian President's Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has already stated the relevant work is underway and such a meeting is not excluded", Zakharova noted.
At the same time answering to the question whether Russia takes dominating position in this issue as the co-chairs of the Minsk Group are not participating in the meeting Zakharova stated: "Related to 'dominating role' I consider this as a compliment. However, I can state related to the meetings without co- chairs that we share all the information with them and all-sided discussions are held".
Earlier Russian foreign ministry informed that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation Grigory Karasin met with France's Ambassador to Russia Jean-Maurice Ripert and OSCE Minsk Group French Co-chair Pierre Andre. The interlocutors discussed issues related to international efforts on resolution of crisis in Ukraine as well as preparation to three-sided summit on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement in Saint Petersburg. However, this material was later removed from the ministry's website.
At the same time Yerevan is not willing to comment on this information. Spokesman of Armenian Foreign Ministry Tigran Balayan only stated that all the high level meetings and visits are announced beforehand while Armenian President's Spokesman Vladimir Hakobyan refused to talk on the topic. Meanwhile, US Co-Chair of OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick stated that a three-sided summit is planned to hold in the end of June.