The USA and France themselves stopped the "tripartite" work of the OSCE Minsk Group on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

APA reports with reference to "Sputnik Armenia" that Maria Zakharova, an official of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said this in response to a question about why Moscow, Paris and Washington could not work together on the Karabakh issue.

"MFA chief Sergei Lavrov, among others, gave his assessment of the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group.

While Washington and Paris are co-chairs, they refused to cooperate with Moscow in February of this year for fictitious reasons.

They also "buried" the OSCE Minsk Group, Zakharova said.

He said that the Geneva discussions on security and stability in the South Caucasus are an example of the violation of cooperation between the West and Russia.

The 56th round of negotiations with Maria Zakharova took place only after a 9-month break, and the next round was scheduled for December, but was postponed until February 2023.

The Russian MFA official also commented on the extension of the EU monitoring group in Armenia.

He said that official Brussels is always trying to join the normalization process between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"They are doing this just to establish themselves in the region and push Russia out of the region.

This is their dream.

We have expressed our attitude to this," Zakharova said at the briefing.

The MFA official said that Russia is in contact with both Armenia and Azerbaijan on the issue, and that they will give additional comments in case the mandate of the EU observation group in Armenia is extended.