Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan escalated further on December 15 over the blockage by groups of protesters of the Lachin Corridor, which links Armenia to the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The route is the only land connection across Azerbaijani territory between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and shops and businesses in Yerevan and Stepanakert are beginning to feel the effects after four days without deliveries.
Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of dispatching the protesters in an attempt to block Armenia's access to the region. Baku denies this.
A video recorded on December 15 showed crowds of people, many carrying Azerbaijani flags, blocking the road in a peaceful standoff with Russian troops who belong to a 5,000-strong mission deployed to the region after Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war in 2020.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova expressed Moscow's concern over the situation and said it expected the route to be cleared soon.
"Russia's Defense Ministry and the Russian peacekeeping contingent have been actively working to de-escalate the situation and we expect full transport links to be restored in the very near future," Zakharova told reporters.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said the closure of the corridor was a "gross violation" of the 2020 peace agreement and the population of the enclave had been made into hostages.
Fuel was in short supply in Nagorno-Karabakh, and local residents reportedly stocked up on basic foodstuffs and drugs on December 15, the fourth day of the road's closure.
Karabakh imports items such as cooking oil, dairy products, rice, and virtually all medicines. These and other imports ground to a halt on December 12 after the Azerbaijanis, posing as environmental activists, blocked the corridor, making ecology-related demands.
According to Azerbaijani media, the protesters’ new demand is that Baku establish control over the Lachin Corridor.
People in Nagorno-Karabakh, speaking on local television, said they believed the road would reopen, noting that they had been in similar situations before and had survived.
Meanwhile, some shopkeepers in Stepanakert said that they were running out of key groceries because of panic buying. People who have been prescribed medicine for blood pressure or diabetes are running out of them, said Gayane Balayan, a pharmacy worker.
Reports from Stepanakert suggest that there has been a significant increase in prices for essential goods that are available.
Firewood first became expensive in Stepanakert, then it was no longer available to buy, said Anahit Stepanian, a mother of seven from Stepanakert.
“Firewood is a problem. We can’t find it now,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on the phone.
The crisis was compounded by the disruption on December 13 of gas supplies from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh in a pipeline passing through Azerbaijani-controlled territory. The disruption has meant that gas-fired bakeries have stopped operating, and most universities, schools, and kindergartens have closed because they cannot heat their buildings.
Baku denies cutting the natural gas supply to the region.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto prime minister, Ruben Vardanian, held an emergency meeting with local officials on December 15. A statement after the meeting said they discussed “measures that will help to minimize a deficit of electricity.”
The officials also briefed Vardanian, a billionaire who was appointed to the post of prime minister about six weeks ago, on current stockpiles of foods, drugs, and other essential items, the statement said, assuring him that there are enough flour stocks in the republic.
The statement said the officials discussed the possibility of using an “alternative fuel” to reactivate bakeries that have closed.