The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswomen, Maria Zakharova, underlined that Russian peacekeepers oversee the Lachin corridor in the Karabakh in response to Ilham Aliyev's comments.

Answering a question from a journalist, Maria Zakharova, an official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, indicated her country's opinion on the French politician's travel to Karabakh and implicitly reacted to Aliyev's comments during the regular briefing.

"First and foremost, officials from Baku and Paris should remark on Azerbaijani-French ties. This is without a shadow of a doubt.

Second, I'll go through the basic approaches to the problem once again, and we'll go from there when it comes to travels to these regions. I'd like to remind you that the Russian peacekeeping contingent is stationed along the line of contact and the Lachin corridor in accordance with the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia's November 9, 2020, comments on a total ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

According to paragraph 6 of this statement, the Lachin corridor is under Russian peacekeepers' authority, and Azerbaijan assures the safety of persons, cars, and cargo movement in both directions along the Lachin corridor.

The Russian peacekeeping contingent's leadership has devised a visitation protocol for the region where peacekeeping operations are carried out, which includes foreign individuals and staff of international mission organisations. The Armenian and Azerbaijani parties are both familiar with this method. Russian peacekeepers will be fully informed of such missions in advance. Once again, this is our fundamental approach," Zakharova stated.

Tofik Zulfugarov, a former Azerbaijani foreign minister, objected to Zakharova's statement.

"Ms. Zakharova should be aware that, unlike a peace enforcement operation, peacekeeping operations do not involve constraints on the host country's sovereignty, according to UN practice."

Earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev responded on the visit of Valérie Pécresse, the Republican Party's presidential candidate in France, to the part of the Karabakh where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily stationed, in December 2021, in an interview with local TV networks.

Aliyev stated that if Azerbaijan had been aware of a French woman's presence in Khankendi (Armenians refer to the city as Stepanakert), she would not have been permitted to leave the country. He also stated that the Azerbaijani army controls the Lachin corridor.

Following that, Valérie Pécresse filed a complaint with the French police, claiming that she received death threats from Azerbaijani officials.