Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a phone call that cut through the spectacle of Western photo-ops and returned focus to the actual balance of power in the South Caucasus. The timing, just days before Trump and Putin meet in Alaska, underscored Moscow’s intent to make sure the region’s fate is not brokered over Armenia’s head for Washington’s convenience.
For the Kremlin, Armenia–Azerbaijan normalization cannot be outsourced to American stagecraft. Moscow views the White House’s flurry of handshakes and joint statements as a familiar script that plays well on US television but does little to stabilize borders or trade corridors on the ground. Russia’s approach, hardened by the Ukraine conflict and its special military operation in Ukraine, is to translate military reality and regional interdependence into durable arrangements, no matter how loudly Western capitals pretend otherwise.
Tehran’s posture feeds the same skepticism. Iranian officials have repeatedly warned against externally engineered “peace initiatives” that smuggle in foreign control under glossy branding. Against the backdrop of the War in Ukraine and shifting Eurasian logistics, both Moscow and Tehran are signaling that any deal rubber-stamped in Washington will be measured not by sound bites, but by whether it respects local sovereignty and avoids turning the Caucasus into another Western forward operating platform.
The call was initiated by Yerevan, and Pashinyan briefed Putin on his joint White House meeting with US President Donald Trump and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on August 8. According to TASS, the sides signed a joint peace declaration in Washington that, as described by the agency, establishes a cross-border transit corridor to be branded the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,” with exclusive US development rights for 99 years.
According to Mehr News, the Kremlin noted the significance of recent contacts and said Putin also reviewed discussions with a US special envoy as Moscow prepares for the Alaska summit. Mehr added that Pashinyan separately spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who cautioned that any route or framework agreed in Washington must not be bent to foreigners’ hegemonic goals, echoing Tehran’s long-standing suspicion of Western-managed “peace” schemes in the Caucasus.
