ArmInfo. Moscow doesn't believe that U.S. will give way to Russia's leadership in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on August 25 in response to the question by an Azerbaijani journalist. In particular, the journalist said that during U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's last visit to Moscow, Kremlin is said to have been offered the leadership in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict provided that Russia gives up on Syria. In response, Zakharova said: "I don't believe the U.S. would agree to give leadership in any issue to Russia. Were it be so, it would a real step forward."
Kerry met with Sergey Lavrov and Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier in July. They discussed many pressing issues, including the Karabakh conflict.
On August 10 in Moscow, Presidents of Russia and Armenia met to discuss the Karabakh settlement. Putin, who also met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev a few age prior to it, insisted that both Armenia and Azerbaijan are committed to a compromise settlement but would not say whether it can be achieved in the coming months. "We will continue to provide the utmost support to the search for ways of untying the 'Karabakh knot' within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group as well as during direct contacts with Yerevan and Baku," he told a news conference with Sarkisian. "We hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan will manage to reach a compromise settlement without winners or losers of existing differences," he said.