On April 5, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reacted strongly to Russia’s public references to Nagorno-Karabakh during and after the April 1 Kremlin meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The Ministry noted that Russian officials publicly addressed issues "related exclusively to Azerbaijan's internal affairs" and stressed that Azerbaijan’s position on the inadmissibility of using the Karabakh region for political speculation has been communicated through diplomatic channels to the Russian presidential administration, government, and Foreign Ministry.

Azerbaijan emphasized that "the Karabakh region is an integral part of Azerbaijan" based on history, international law, and justice—not on any foreign state’s decision. The Foreign Ministry condemned repeated mentions of Karabakh in Russian political discourse, citing a recent interview by Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov on Russian-Armenian relations.

"We remind the Russian side that no country, including the Russian Federation, has ever questioned the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including the Karabakh region. We expect that issues related to Azerbaijan’s sovereignty will not become a subject of public discussion during the current difficult period in Russian-Armenian relations," the statement concluded.