Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Saka. My guest today is an Armenian

who made a vast fortune in Russia and who's now using his wealth and connections to further a cause

which puts him at the heart of a long-running conflict. Ruben Vartagnan became a billionaire financier in Vladimir Putin's Russia. Last year,

he made an unexpected move. He renounced his Russian citizenship with Putin's personal

permission, and he moved to Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory deep within Azerbaijan, but controlled by ethnic Armenians in defiance of Azeri claims to sovereignty.

Ruben Vartagnan is now the de facto prime minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, and he is adamant that the enclave will never bow to Azeri domination.

Only Russia can safeguard this breakaway territory. But of course,

Vladimir Putin's preoccupied with his war in Ukraine. So is Nagorno-Karabakh's defiance doomed?

Well, Ruben Vartagnan joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you.

Now, Mr. Vartagnan, many in our hard-talk audience will not know very much about Nagorno-Karabak,

but suffice to say, you are the state minister in a tiny territory of some 120,000 people,

and right now you have an urgent crisis because your land route out to Armenia is currently blockaded.

What is the situation for the people living in your territory today?

First of all, I want to say thank you for doing this interview.

It's very important for the world knowing what's happening in a lockdown territory

where there is 120,000 people living in their own homeland thousands of years.

And last 35 years was fighting their own independence.

38 days in December 12, the Azerbaijan named eco-activists blocked the road.

And with the support of the Azerbaijan state,

now we control the road and we don't get anything except from Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers.

And we have 30,000 kids. It's a winter, no electricity, limited electricity, no gas, basically.

And no food and medicaments and gasoline without help of red cross and

...