The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement in connection with a note of protest from Azerbaijan regarding the “representatives” of the illegal regime created in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia to Russia Masis Mayilyan and Lernik Hovhannisyan.

Axar.az reports citing Russian media.

The statement by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicates that the trip of these persons was exclusively private.

“It contradicts neither Russian legislation nor existing international agreements, nor Russia's mediation mission in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. No meetings were held with officials of the Russian Federation. As for the references to Mayilyan and Hovhannisyan’s certain contacts with Russian experts in the so-called “permanent mission of Artsakh in Russia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry again emphasizes: such a “mission” is not registered with the state bodies of the Russian Federation as a diplomatic mission of a sovereign state, since Russia does not recognize the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic", the statement says.