President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visited the city of Jabragil in Nagorno-Karabakh in order to inspect construction work being done there, the presidency said today, days after Baku forces regained control of the mountainous region in a blitzkrieg.

The presidency did not specify when the trip took place, but it seems that it is Aliyev’s first visit to Karabakh after Azerbaijan’s attack, which caused tens of thousands of Armenians to leave the region.

Jabragil was occupied by Armenian forces in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but came back under Azerbaijani control during a brief war in 2020.

Meanwhile, The Kremlin said today that it does not see the reason for the exit of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh ongoing, de facto rejecting charges of ethnic cleansing leveled by Armenia against Azerbaijan.

“We cannot say who is to blame (for the exodus), because there are no immediate reasons for such actions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“However, the residents express the desire to leave the Karabakh region (…) and the most important thing is that those who made this decision can do so in good conditions,” he added.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, for his part, saw the exodus as evidence of an “ethnic cleansing” orchestrated by Azerbaijan and called on the international community to take action.

The Kremlin it was also limited to “noting” the announcement of self-dissolution from January 1, 2024 of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian-populated region that broke away from Azerbaijan and was militarily defeated by Baku last week within 24 hours.

The Kremlin spokesman also stated that Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh provide aid to local residentsanswering a question, during the regular press briefing, if President Vladimir Putin plans to visit Armenia.

According to a representative of the Armenian Prime Minister, 68,386 people have arrived in Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Meanwhile, the former leader of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave was placed in temporary detention for four months by Azerbaijan, a decision which was immediately condemned today by Yerevan, which denounced “illegal arrests”.

Ruben Vardanyan, a businessman, banker and philanthropist who led Nagorno-Karabakh from November 2022 to last February, is accused of financing terrorism and other crimes, according to the Azeri State Security Service.

Vardanian is also accused of creating an illegal armed organization, according to the indictment presented by the agency, which released a video showing the handcuffed defendant being escorted by Azeri security forces agents.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called today for the respect of the rights of the former leader of Nagorno-Karabakh who has been detained by Azerbaijan.

“The rights of Reuben Vardanian and any other person detained should be fully respected and protected,” the High Commission said in a brief statement sent to AFP.

“We call on the authorities to take all measures to ensure respect for the rights to an orderly process and a fair trial, as required by international human rights law,” he added.