Armen Abazian attended their meeting in Moscow on Wednesday hosted by Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service.
An SVR statement on the meeting said participants discussed “the West’s unconstructive influence on our countries” under the guise of democracy promotion.
“The heads of the special services were of the common opinion that the processes are of systematic character and are aimed at destabilizing the political situation in CIS countries,” the SVR said in a statement. “The involvement of nongovernmental and international organizations in these processes is coordinated by Western intelligence services.”
The security chiefs of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to step up joint efforts to “counter those processes.”
As of Friday evening, the press offices of the NSS and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian declined to confirm that Yerevan agrees with the SVR’s claims.
In its five-year policy program approved by the Armenian parliament in August, Pashinian’s government described closer ties with the United States and the European Union as a foreign policy priority. Pashinian has repeatedly made that clear in his contacts with U.S. and EU officials.
Earlier this year the EU pledged to provide Armenia with up to 2.6 billion euros ($3.1 billion) in economic assistance and investments over the next five years. Pashinian said the funding will help to “introduce more European values in our country.”