Russia on Monday accused the West of undermining regional security and engaging in a "diplomatic raid" in the South Caucasus while the United States offered support in helping Armenia conduct peace talks with Azerbaijan amid soaring tensions between the archrivals.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow alongside his Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed out at Brussels and Washington for "imposing their supervision" on the peace talks between Yerevan and Baku.

He accused the West of "undisguised attempts ... to undermine the region's security architecture by engaging in a diplomatic raid and trying to subdue" trilateral agreements between Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"They are trying to impose their curatorship on all this work," Lavrov said, which he noted involved active participation of Russia both in resolving issues of unblocking transport and economic ties, as well as in delimitating the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and assisting the parties in signing a peace treaty.

Moscow sees neither the opportunity nor the need to develop a dialogue with the West on the South Caucasus, he further stressed.

"We see what goals the West pursues in the South Caucasus. It doesn't hide them – to tear Russia away" from the region, Lavrov said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have held several rounds of peace talks with mediation from Brussels and Washington.

On Feb. 20, the EU deployed an expanded monitoring mission to Armenia's volatile border with Azerbaijan.

Lavrov further claimed that the West provides financial and material support to multiple nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the South Caucasus for the preparation of "color revolutions."

"This is also not much hidden. ... All these nongovernmental organizations are known. The way they act, publicly defending the interests of the West, trying to discredit the actions of the same Russia, the same Iran, is also known," he added.

Lachin crisis

Russia is in favor of the full implementation of the trilateral agreement between Moscow, Baku and Yerevan, he went on to say, noting that the topic of the Lachin corridor should be exclusively viewed in this context.

"Each party has its obligations there," Lavrov said, expressing hope that all parties would understand the need to fulfill the agreements regarding the resolution of the crisis in the Lachin corridor.

He said a new date for a trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of the three countries will be discussed soon.

Lavrov's remarks came days after Pashinian said he had complained to Russian President Vladimir Putin about "problems" with Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh, warning of an escalation in the restive Caucasus region.

Yerevan, which relies on Russia as a security guarantor, is growing frustrated over the Kremlin's failure to prevent Baku's monthslong blockade of the sole land link between Karabakh and Armenia.

It has claimed that the blockade has led to a humanitarian crisis and is aimed at driving Armenians from Karabakh, which Baku has denied.

For his part, Mirzoyan denied that a targeted anti-Russian campaign is taking place in Armenia, noting that many Russian citizens live in the country without complaints.

"As for the demonstrations, the constitution and the legislation of the Republic of Armenia guarantees freedom of assembly. I can just share information with you – demonstrations against the Armenian authorities are very often held in Armenia as well," Mirzoyan said.

He also said Yerevan has never refused the deployment of a Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) mission on the border areas between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but that there were difficulties in agreeing on the organization's area of responsibility.

Aliyev and Pashinian have met several times as part of attempts to resolve the conflict, but periodic violence has hurt peace talks.

Karabakh was the focal point of two wars that have pitted Armenia against Azerbaijan in the more than 30 years since both ex-Soviet states achieved independence. Russia and Armenia are officially allied through a mutual self-defense pact, but Moscow also seeks to maintain good relations with Azerbaijan.

Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but was under Armenian occupation from 1991 to 2020 when 44-day deadly clashes ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire that saw Armenia cede territory it had controlled for decades and Moscow deploy a peacekeeping contingent.

The agreement is widely regarded as a significant victory for Azerbaijan but it has been broken several times since then, most notably in October when a shootout along their troubled border resulted in the death of over 280 people from both sides.

Later in December Baku and Yerevan traded accusations over a blockade of the Lachin corridor where Azerbaijani environmental activists have been protesting the illegal mining of Azerbaijani resources in the region.

In addition to another flareup in violence in early March that saw at least five people killed on both sides, Azerbaijan on Monday also condemned Armenian gunfire on its military positions in the Zangilan region of Karabakh, which it said injured one of its servicemen.

"Armenia should stop abusing the presence of the European Union civilian monitoring mission in its territories," the statement said, demanding that Yerevan "abandon its military provocation and increasingly aggressive rhetoric" that increase tensions in the region.

"The political and military leadership of Armenia bears full responsibility for the provocations against the peace-building measures carried out by Azerbaijan in the region."

U.S. support

Lavrov’s jabs preceded a fresh offer of help from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Pashinian in a phone call hours later on Monday.

Blinken "reiterated U.S. support for direct talks and diplomacy to support a lasting and sustainable peace in the South Caucasus and stressed that there is no military solution," the State Department said in a statement.

Last month, Blinken also brought together Aliyev and Pashinian on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference where the two leaders reached "a common understanding that there should be a two-track approach to the situation," one regarding bilateral peace talks and internal issues like communications with Armenians in Karabakh.

Aliyev and Pashinian, however, have traded more barbs since then, with Yerevan accusing Baku of "genocide" in Karabakh with the blockade in Lachin and Baku condemning Yerevan for "covering up its occupation policy of 30 years by deliberately impeding peace efforts."