Putin reports progress in talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, saying only technical issues remain

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says “strictly technical” issues remain in resolving one of the main disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbors that fought a war over a contested territory. Putin met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. They discussed a dispute over a winding road called the Lachin Corridor. That’s the only authorized connection between Armenia and the contested territory, Nagorno-Karabakh. It’s a lifeline for supplies to the region’s 120,000 people. Aliyev and Pashinyan lashed out at each other for their positions regarding the land corridor. But Putin said that on the “principal issues, there is an agreement,” and later said all that remained were “surmountable obstacles.”