On April 23, Azerbaijan's State Border Service accused the Armenian side of shuttling "continuing military supplies from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh," a claim repeatedly denied in both Yerevan and Stepanakert. The availability of food in Nagorno-Karabakh has become acute due to irregular deliveries, and prices for food and other goods have risen significantly and there have been interruptions in supplies of gas and electricity. Tensions have flared recently as the Lachin Corridor has been blocked by government-backed Azerbaijani protesters since December 2022. The "frozen conflict" erupted violently in 2020 into intense fighting that lasted six weeks before a Russia-brokered cease-fire resulted in Armenia and ethnic Armenians losing control over parts of the region and seven adjacent districts. The checkpoints are intended to restrict traffic on the only road connecting Armenia with the mostly Armenian-populated parts of Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. "Ensuring border security.is the prerogative of the government of Azerbaijan and a necessary condition for national security, state sovereignty, and the rule of law," it added. In Baku, the Foreign Ministry said Azerbaijan called its action a "legitimate decision" and that it "took appropriate measures to establish control at the starting point of the road." In setting up the border checkpoint at the Lachin road, Azerbaijan's State Border Service said that it mirrored a similar unilateral step by Armenia made on April 22. In a move condemned by Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani authorities on April 23 set up a border checkpoint on the only road connecting the mostly Armenian-populated region with Armenia. With reporting by AFP and APĪzerbaijan and Armenia exchanged accusations on April 23 over alleged military supplies and the appearance of checkpoints in a sensitive region around the Caucasus foes' shared border. "We will find formats to respond to this so that the Americans remember for a long time that such things must not be done," Ryabkov was quoted by state-run news agencies as saying. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned of retaliation against U.S. refusal to issue visas to the Russian journalists. In his comments, Lavrov said Russia "will not forgive nor forget" the U.S. Most Western journalists who had been reporting in Russia left the country following the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, facing tightened reporting, visas, and accreditation regulations. He is a fluent Russian speaker, the son of emigres who left the Soviet Union for the United States during the Cold War. He had been reporting on Russia for more than five years at the time of his arrest. Gershkovich was the first foreign journalist arrested on spying allegations since the collapse of the Soviet Union. journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia on allegations of espionage that The Wall Street Journal reporter, his publication, and U.S. "The United States takes seriously its obligations as host country of the UN under the UN Headquarters Agreement, including with respect to visa issuance," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. State Department did not immediately comment about the claim of the visa denials, saying it could not speak on specific visa requests because of privacy rules. "We won't forget - we will not forgive this," said Lavrov, who is scheduled to chair several UN Security Council meetings starting on April 24 in New York as Russia assumes the rotating presidency of the council. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed anger after he claimed the United States had not issued visas to journalists seeking to accompany him to the United Nations, with Russian officials vowing to retaliate against U.S.
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