STEPANAKERT, JUNE 15, NOYAN TAPAN. Russia's possibilities in the diplomatic sphere of NKR's international recognition are limited, but most of Russians support the Nagorno Karabakh struggle: according to a public poll, nearly 65% Russians support this struggle. Modest Kolerov, a candidate of historic sciences, the managing director of the REGNUM Novosti Russian Federal Information Agency, reported at a round table organized on June 12 at the NKR Foreign Ministry. At the same time he said that in the opinion of Russian society, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be solved only in a political and peaceful way. "The number of supporters of conflict's military settlement in Russia is very small," M. Kolerov said. Saying that he has always spoken for Nagorno Karabakh's participation in conflict settlement negotiations, he said that it is too important from point of view of diplomatic technique. At the same time M. Kolerov is against artificial acceleration of the conflict settlement process, especially in the context when settlement is presented as a precondition for other regional processes, in particular, for opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, which, in his opinion, is fraught with some dangers. "All nations are equal, but each nation's fate is unique, and one cannot change a nation's fate at the expense of the fate of another nation," M. Kolerov said. In his words, no doubt Nagorno Karabakh is a fully-established state, but it should work more actively in the foreign sphere, in particular, at expert level ensure Nagorno Karabakh representatives' participation in international events. Another representative of Russia taking part in the round table, Director of the Quorum Center for Monitoring of Democratic Processes Alexei Kochetkov, mentioned the necessity of establishing contacts between Russia and Nagorno Karabakh at the level of society and non-governmental organizations. He attached importance to civil society's significant role in the issue of conflict settlement. At the same time A. Kochetkov said that Nagorno Karabakh conflict's essence is not widely known to the world. In his words, Azerbaijan allocates huge funds for agitation purposes, but the Azeri side accepts any step of introducing NKR to the international community as a threat. According to the report of the NKR Foreign Ministry Press Service, NKR National Assembly deputies, representatives of NKR Foreign Ministry diplomatic corps, and non-governmental organizations took part in the discussion.

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