Putin hosts Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders for peace talks

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is hosting the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to try to broker a settlement to a longstanding conflict between the two ex-Soviet neighbors. In an initial meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Russian leader’s Black Sea residence in Sochi on Monday, Putin listed the priorities. He said the goals would be to ensure peace and stability, and unblock transportation infrastructure to help Armenia’s economic and social development. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.