Azerbaijan and Armenia Should Not Trust Russia: Former Russian Oligarch Berezovsky

Former Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service that Armenia and Azerbaijan should not look to Moscow to help solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Berezovsky, who lives in self-imposed exile in Britain, said Russia will always impede efforts to resolve the conflict.

"It is in Russia's interest to make the conflict even more complicated in order to divide and conquer," he said.

Berezovsky said Russia's current leaders are neither experienced nor adequately educated. He said their primary interest is to exploit the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to make money.

Berezovsky, 64, added that the strategic interests of post-Soviet countries and Russia diverge. He said nobody will help the post-Soviet Eurasian states stand up to Russia's expansion and domination so they must rely on their own efforts.

Berezovsky said Western countries are mainly concerned with their own short-term interests. He said for that reason people in the former Soviet republics should be politically active and ready to fight for their freedoms every day.