Moscow, Jun 20 (Agency) Russia has earmarked $3.2 million from federal budget to finance a UN Development Programme (UNDP) initiative aimed at helping Armenia recover from the armed conflict with Azerbaijan, the Russian embassy in Yerevan said on Saturday. “The Russian government made the decision to finance a UNDP project aimed at assisting the most affected regions of Armenia in post-conflict recovery. For this purpose, $3.2 million have been allocated from the budget. The embassy has already notified Armenia on this decision,” a statement read.
The embassy stressed that Russia’s contributions to UNDP projects aimed at Armenia’s comprehensive development have been “systemic,” covering such areas as health care, education, energy, climate, emergencies, and socio-economic development of both rural and borderline areas. Since 2010, Russia’s UNDP contributions for Armenia have totaled about $70 million, according to the statement. The armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh took place last September and had repercussions spill over to 2021 as a result of post-conflict disagreements over new border delineation. The 44-day hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered trilateral declaration of ceasefire on November 10, 2020, in which the sides cemented their respective territorial gains and losses and agreed to Russian peacekeepers to be deployed to the region to monitor the truce.